Shinsei Kuchiyose Seshuu: True Summoning Heritage
by BonclaysFan
Summary: Naruto is informed of a bloodline passed down to him by his parents the day after he becomes a genin. Unfortunately a fire leaves him with only a beginer's scroll to help him learn about it. Entry into Brown Phantom's Hidden Bloodline Contest.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: "Shinsei Kuchiyose Seshuu: True Summoning Heritage"

A/N: Hello one and all to the first chapter of my entry into Brown Phantom's hidden bloodline contest. If you would like to know the rules please go visit his author's page but the main gist of it is: 1) Naruto has a bloodline. 2) He CANNOT have a teacher or a scroll to teach him how to use it*. 3) He gets the bloodline before the Sasuke Retrieval arc but after he becomes genin.

I'm using these guidelines as closely as possible and such. So without further stalling let's start with Chapter one of "Shinsei Kuchiyose Seshuu"

Speaking of Brown Phantom's profile, maybe you could go over there and vote in his poll about who is the best Naruto fan fiction writer out there? Show your support for your favorites. Or show your contempt for those you don't like by NOT voting for them. Just something to think about. Without further delay, let's get to the first chapter.

* Quote from Brown Phantom himself "Naruto is allowed to know a couple of details about his bloodline in order to

give him something to work with and get started on mastering his bloodline.  
The scroll he managed to save is exactly that, only an introduction to his  
bloodline but provides little help on what to do with it. "

* * *

"Uzumaki Naruto, wake up." A slow voice droned from the darkness.

"Gah!" The young blonde teenager shouted snapping awake at the sound of the voice. Looking around his apartment he finally found the source of the noise.

"The Third Hokage requires your presence immediately." The masked figure stated before it began moving towards the door. In the darkness of the room it appeared to glide.

Turning to check his clock nearby Naruto shouted out "What's the big idea? It's only five in the morning!" Naruto stood up and shot a glare at where the masked man once stood. He had somehow slipped out of the house without Naruto noticing. "Whatever. This had better be important." Naruto grumbled as he started getting dressed.

Hiruzen Sarutobi sat within his office filled with pride. Upon learning that Naruto had finally passed his genin exams Sarutobi couldn't help himself. He had grown to love Naruto as a grandson over the years and hoped that he would be destined for greatness. Sadly this didn't seem to be the case at first. Naruto constantly failed his tests, wouldn't listen to his teachers, and would hardly even practice his skills. The only thing he seemed to be adept at doing was pranks.

However when he saw the young man accomplish a high ranked ninjutsu after only a few mere hours of practice Sarutobi knew that his hope, which he had nearly given up on, had a chance of being fulfilled. Now there was only one more thing to be taken care of before Naruto could truly begin his journey to greatness.

"Hey Jiji-san! What's the big idea waking me up at four in the morning!" Naruto shouted after rudely barging in through the door. "Wanting to promote me to Hokage already? Can't say I blame you, I am pretty great." Naruto started grinning broadly as he said this.

"Naruto, I sent an ANBU to your house at five. I would appreciate it if you could take this seriously." Sarutobi sighed. It would have been foolish to expect maturation overnight but he had hoped that the teen would have at least learned some form of control.

"Sure sure." Naruto yawned "Now what is it that you want me for? A super high-ranked ninja mission?"

"It's about your family."

"M-my family?" Naruto could hardly believe it. What could the Third possibly have to say about them?

"Your family is, well to be entirely honest was, in possession of a kekkei genkai." The Third motioned towards Naruto "Which means that this trait has been passed down to you."

"A kekkei genkai…" Naruto whispered in awe.

"Yes this one is rather… Yes Naruto?" The Third noticed halfway through his sentence that Naruto seemed to look confused.

"What's a kekkei genkai?"

It took all of his self-control to not yell at the boy. The basics of Kekkei Genkai were common knowledge. _'Calm down Hiruzen, it's early. It probably just slipped his mind.'_ Taking a deep breath and finding his pipe the older man explained "A bloodline limit. A special technique that only your family can perform. Now it's of the utmost importance that you don't share your technique secrets with anyone."

"Alright! What ability do I have? Some sort of awesome thing where I can destroy stuff with my eyes? Can I control plants or something? Maybe even have it so that…" Naruto started to go on a tangent before the man in front of him interrupted.

"It's all in the scrolls. You are now in possession of over one hundred scrolls detailing things about your bloodline that will help you master it." Gesturing towards a box on his desk he continued "This box contains around twenty of the smaller scrolls. The others are in a special vault which I shall accompany you to and you may take them back to your apartment as soon as you can."

"Thanks Jiji-san, but why didn't you give me these earlier?" Naruto was ecstatic at the prospect of an ability that only he could use.

"Simple Naruto, it is your clan's law that a member only has access to these scrolls after he becomes an adult. By the village laws you are an adult when you pass the genin exams so I'm giving them to you now. There are a lot of scrolls so Iruka volunteered to help you carry them once he arrives."

"Isn't he too injured?"

"Not injured enough so that he can't carry a few scrolls for his favorite student." Hiruzen smiled kindly _'You're destined for great things, and these scrolls will help you do them. I just hope you're not disappointed by your new abilities.'_

A few hours later Naruto sat in his bed relaxing "Alright, an awesome ability that only I can use! Take that Sasuke-teme! I'll show you which one of us is better! Now which scroll should I read first?" Looking around the boxes of scrolls he found one labeled 'Beginner' "Well, this is as good of a place to start as any I guess." With that said he opened the scroll and began reading:

_Shinsei Kuchiyose Seshuu:_

_Ninja animal summons are an important part of any ninja's repertoire. Anything from dogs to monkeys to fish to snakes are used for varying purposes including but not limited to: offence, tracking, and sentry duty just to name a few. A shinobi must be able to work together with others in almost any situation. However at certain times having a group of people with you will only result in getting you and your team killed. In situations like these the Kuchiyose technique is used to bring allies to the battle field for assistance. These intelligent-_

Naruto sighed "Why does every scroll have to be so damned boring? Why can't it just tell me how to summon an unbeatable lion or something?" Glancing at his clock he found that he didn't have much time before he was supposed to meet Kakashi and the rest of his team "I'll read the rest of these later." Slipping the beginner scroll into his kunai pouch he briefly considered eating before he remembered Kakashi's dire warning. "I can handle missing a bit of breakfast." And with that he left his apartment.

Hinata Hyuuga glanced from left to right nervously as she walked through the village at approximately 1405 hours._ 'I can hardly believe that I managed to pass Kurenai-sensei's test. Finding her was difficult but I'm glad that Kiba-kun and Shino-kun were there to help. I hope Naruto-kun passed his genin test as well. Maybe if he did we could do some collaboration missions together. We'll be able to spend a lot of time together and I'll probably end up showing him how weak I am and making a fool of myself.'_ The young heiress's upbeat thoughts quickly turned sour.

"Hey Hinata! How are you?" A loud voice boomed from directly behind her.

A swift tremble coursed through the young girl's spine before she managed to turn around and face the source of the noise. "H-hello Naruto-kun I'm doing great. Did you um… did you…?" Hinata started.

"Hey, did you pass your final exam too? Kakashi-sensei made us get these bells from him. I passed with flying colors of course. He wanted to test and see if we could handle working together as a group! Sasuke-teme didn't do too great. He kept trying to show everyone up. It was really annoying but in the end I carried the team to victory!" Naruto interrupted as he started telling his version of the story.

"Congratulations Naruto-kun!" Hinata managed to say without a stutter, a small smile gracing her lips _'Naruto-kun passed too! This is great! Maybe we can work together eventually.'_

"So what was your guys' test like? I bet it went awesome. Kiba and Shino would be able to get the bells from anyone! I'm sure of it!" Naruto stated loudly before he noticed the sudden sadness that seemed to envelope Hinata "Hinata, are you sure you're okay?"

"Huh, oh yeah… I'm fine." Hinata stated_ 'He doesn't think I could get the bells… wait, bells?'_ Hinata shook her head slightly "We didn't have to get bells Naruto-kun. We're a uh… tracking team. W-we had to find Kurenai-sensei within a time limit. It wasn't too hard with my Byakugan and Kiba's nose. Shino-kun even managed to bug sensei so we didn't have to hard of time with it."

"That's great Hinata! I knew you guys could do it." Naruto glanced around "Hey, if you don't mind I gotta go now and practice the stuff on my new scrolls and get ready for my awesome missions tomorrow."

"Oh… okay Naruto-kun. Good bye." Hinata said meekly bowing.

"See ya Hinata, good luck with Kiba and Shino. I'm sure dog-breath will be fun to hang out with and all but he's not exactly a quiet person like Shino and you." Naruto shouted as he ran off towards his home to retrieve some of the scrolls.

_'I didn't faint around Naruto-kun!'_ Hinata celebrated in her head as she looked skyward intent on thanking whoever was up there for her good luck. She paused when she noticed a plume of dark smoke arising from somewhere off in the village._ 'Isn't that where Naruto-kun ran off to? Yeah, he ran off in that direction. Maybe he lives over there! I can see his house!'_ Hinata had never gathered the courage to actually find out where Naruto lived so she saw this as the perfect opportunity. Especially because if she got caught she could claim that she was just seeing what had happened. She was not prepared for what reality had in store.

_'Maybe I should have dropped off by Ichiraku's before I came back home. Oh well I got plenty of… plenty of… what?'_ Naruto glanced at the spot that had once held his apartment. All that was left was the charred remains of his home. "What the hell happened?" glancing around once more he saw several ANBU extinguishing the last of the flames.

"Naruto…" A kindly voice spoke from nearby.

"Jiji-san! What the hell happened?"

"Well Naruto… It would appear that several villagers decided to try to take matters into their own hands. They burned your house down…"

"I can damn well see that! What about my stuff! My food! My… My family's scrolls!" Naruto interrupted speaking out in a confused fury.

"Naruto please calm down. I'm afraid that the only things that survived were a few metal tools. Your family scrolls and everything else burned up in the blaze."

A short distance away from the remains of the house and the wizened village leader stood a young teenage girl _'Naruto-kun's house is gone… Maybe I can help… Maybe… Father!'_ Hinata stood from her hiding spot and dashed towards her home.

"I can't believe it's all gone." Naruto sulked. Sarutobi had invited him to the Hokage's office until he could properly deal with the situation.

Sighing he replied "Yes Naruto, I'm afraid that we have yet to find the ones responsible. But I promise you that I'm getting every available asset on it."

"Jiji-san… You don't happen to have any copies of the scrolls I lost do ya? I only have the one talking about the basics."

Once again Sarutobi found himself sighing while trying to prepare himself for what must come next "I'm afraid that we don't. Since you were the only surviving member of your family it was deemed unnecessary to copy them. It was felt that one set would be enough for you. Besides, even if it was necessary we wouldn't have been able to. Clan scrolls can't just be copied. We must seek permission from the current head of the clan."

Jumping up from the bench he was resting on Naruto exploded "Then why didn't you ask me! I lose stuff like that all the time! I would have said yes!"

Trying to remain calm Sarutobi replied "According to your own clan's law, you wouldn't have been eligible for head status for another six years. Until you are eighteen you are not considered a clan head by your clan, and by extension the village. If you had decided to copy them yourself there would have been allowed. But I'm afraid non-clan members are not allowed to do so unless specifically granted permission by the current clan-head. I'm sorry Naruto… But there's nothing we can do for you on this matter. The only scroll left is the one you have with you."

"Whatever I guess… What about my house?" Naruto sighed hoping there would be at least some good news.

Sarutobi couldn't stop his shoulders from drooping, this was the part he truly dreaded "Naruto there is even more bad news. I can't manage to find lodgings for you right now. No apartment complex in your current price range can manage to fit you in."

"What!" Naruto exclaimed "Wh-what about Iruka-sensei! He can take care of me for a little bit right?"

"Unfortunately Iruka's landlord is very strict. He may only live with one tenant in the apartment he currently resides in. Iruka's price range isn't much higher than yours Naruto. He can't afford to fit two people."

"Bu-but what about you? Or couldn't you just make someone let me in for a little while?"

"Naruto Uzumaki are you suggesting I force someone to open their home to a member of the military!" Sarutobi stated angrily "I can't order anyone on anything that does not directly relate back to military affairs. The council is in charge of that. I am no dictator and as such I can't issue an order such as that without their permission. I would thank you to not even remotely suggest that I would do such a thing." Inhaling some smoke from his pipe he continued in a much calmer tone "As for your other suggestion I am afraid that it is not possible either. Were I not the Hokage I would be more than happy to allow you lodgings with me and my family. My grandson would appreciate it too I think. However, no matter how much I care for you as a grandson it's just not possible. I can't show favoritism as a standing military head. If I take you in, what about the other orphans who live by themselves? The other ninja who can't afford homes? It's just not possible, it would snowball into a problem too large to contain. I'm sorry Naruto, but you'll just have to deal with this for a few weeks until another apartment opens up. Think of it as a prolonged survival training if you have to. I'm sorry but I just can't do anything or I would. Believe me." Sarutobi pleaded with the young man before him.

"No problem Jiji-san, I'll do fine. It may not be the best, but I've had worse." Naruto smiled at the old man before he left. Something about that smile almost broke Hiruzen's heart.

"Father!"

Hiashi nearly jumped when the door to his study was slammed open. His surprise nearly doubled when he realized that it was Hinata, his meekest daughter. He calmed himself quickly however, before asking in an even tone "What is so important that you have to barge into my office uninvited?"

"A friend of mine had their house burned down and they need a place to stay for a while. I would like to request the chance for my friend to live here." Hinata stated with a fierce determination in her eyes.

Hiashi watched his daughter for a few moments and noted that she had not stuttered once during her explanation "We cannot accept an entire family." He stated calmly.

"It is only one person father."

Hiashi was intrigued by this development. Obviously this 'friend' had a radical affect on his daughter's behavior. She seemed much less meek._ 'Just what kind of friend is this… And they're an orphan too. Perhaps…'_ Hiashi watched his daughter for a few more moments and was impressed when she did not weather or fidget under his gaze "Perhaps. Bring this friend of yours here Hinata. I shall make my decision after I have spoken to this… friend of yours."

"Arigatou gozaimasu father." Hinata stated as she made her way from her father's study and shut the doors behind her.

_'I wonder if perhaps I can turn this to the clan's advantage.'_ Hiashi thought to himself as he gazed towards the doors.

"This sucks." Naruto said out-loud as he sat on the swing. With nowhere else to be and not in the mood to train he decided to hang out in his usual spot. He was pondering his options when he noticed someone was walking towards him. _'Who's that? Probably some jack ass villager wanting to try to get me again. Well they have another thing coming.'_ Preparing himself for a confrontation he was pleasantly surprised when he recognized the figure as Hinata "Oh hey Hinata! What are you doing here?"

"We-well I was um… th-thinking about your situation and uh… well… Your house… and well my house is…" Hinata paused and noted the look of confusion on her crush's face "What I'm trying to say is um…"

"Hinata… What are you talking about?" Naruto asked unable to stay silent any longer. His friend seemed to be having quite a bit of trouble talking right now, and he figured if he helped a bit maybe she could work it out.

"I saw that your house bu-burned down earlier and… I was wondering if uh… may-maybe you wo-wouldn't be opposed to…" the last few words were mumbled as Hinata's face started burning bright red.

"Wouldn't be opposed to what?" Naruto was curious about a few things at this point, firstly what the offer was, and secondly how Hinata knew his house burned down.

"If you wouldn't be opposed at taking up residence in the Hyuuga manor?" Hinata asked swiftly.

Naruto narrowed his eyes a bit. This seemed a bit too good to be true._ 'Maybe it's a trap? But that's just ridiculous she's Hinata! She wouldn't do something like that. I may as well hear her out, it couldn't hurt.'_

Hinata noticed the narrowing of Naruto's eyes _'Oh no, he's made at me! What did __I do?'_

"Alright. I have no other options. I'll hear you out Hinata but can I ask you a question first? Why are you offering this to me? Not to sound ungrateful but I'm just curious."

"We-well I um… you're my friend, I can't have a friend living in the st-streets can I? Not if I can do something to help them." Hinata stated blushing, she had briefly considered telling him the truth but couldn't find the courage to do so.

Naruto thought about it for a few moments _'That does seem like something she would do. Alright then.'_ Naruto plastered a smile on his face "Well then what're we waiting for Hinata? Let's get to it eh?"

Hinata couldn't quite believe her luck, she had convinced Naruto-kun. Now all that was left was "First though Father wants to meet you."

* * *

A/N: Naruto came across a bit suspicious at the end but wouldn't you if you had to live his life? Don't forget to check out Brown Phantom's contest notes as well as the other entrants into the contest.

Before you get all excited though about Naruto having a beginner's scroll I ran it by the contest giver and he said it's fine as long as it's nothing that allows him to become too proficient too quickly. Hopefully you all enjoyed it.

For those of you wondering why I used military time, I figured that they're a ninja village so military time would be the time standard.

I hope this prologue-ish chapter has gotten you interested in the story. Please just try to bear with me. I never know how to end these things so um… Thanks for reading.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: "The Hyuuga Compound"

A/N: Welcome to chapter 2 my lovelies. I would like to clear something up regarding the rules of the contest. I messaged the creator of the challenge [Brown Phantom] and he said it's perfectly fine for Naruto to have a scroll as long as it doesn't make him overly proficient right off the bat. He will become good at it, but that's a long way off when you only have the starter scroll. It's like trying to learn how to rationalize denominators after learning how to add numbers in the single digit. Well, at least most of the summons are. Well without further ado let's get to chapter 2 shall we?

* * *

'I know this isn't going to end well.' Was the only thought that crossed Naruto's mind as they travelled in silence towards Hinata's home. He knew he was no genius, he would admit to it freely; however during their trip he thought about almost every foreseeable possibility and none of them ended well. 'I just hope Hinata doesn't get in trouble for trying to help me.'

Little did he know that Hinata's thoughts were of the same emotional tone. However she foresaw a much different outcome. 'He'll probably think it's a horrible place to live and then he'll never talk to me again.' She thought forebodingly. The possibility that her father would say no to allowing Naruto to live there was something that she remained blissfully unaware of.

When they finally arrived at the compound Naruto glanced around at the guards but noticed that they didn't seem to notice him. In fact their eyes seemed to glide over him. Even when he walked directly in front of a pair by the main gate their attention slid over both him and Hinata. 'They're ignoring me? But why? They know about me don't they? Why aren't they telling me to leave or cursing at me or at least glaring?' Naruto pondered this for a while but never reached a good answer. This train of thought ran through his mind right up until they reached the front door. "Wow…" was all Naruto could say. The front door had something enchanting about it despite its austere appearance. It looked just like any other wooden door. But something stood out about it.

For the first time Naruto started looking around the grounds of the compound and noticed that everything had a similar quality. Despite being rich the Hyuuga's appeared to display little wealth on the outside. Yet despite this everything they owned seemed to have an outstanding quality. Naruto glanced at Hinata and noticed that she appeared to be waiting for him "Lead the way." He stated quietly. Something about this place seemed to quell his normal behavior of loudness. 'I'm probably just nervous.'

Soon they were travelling through a labyrinth of hallways. Each hallway appeared to be exactly the same as the last. Every few hallways there would be a small item, such as a portrait or a potted plant, which broke the monotony of the plain white walls. If one were to look at the wooden floors they would notice that although made of a different material and having a different color than the walls they still seemed to blend together. It was rather peaceful but somehow gave off a dark tone. Naruto finally understood the atmosphere of this place. An air of suppression seemed to seep from everything. Reaching a different hallway that looked just like any of the others he had been in Naruto noticed that Hinata had stopped walking.

"Uhm… N-Naruto-kun. We're near m-my father's study. You w-will have t-to b-be on your best um… behavior." Hinata visibly twitched. This combined two of her biggest fears, Naruto thinking badly of her and her father, at the same time.

Naruto put on a broad smile "Don't worry about it Hinata, it'll be fine." However Hinata noticed that he was faking it. Even someone who had known Naruto for several seconds could tell something was off and so Hinata was very well aware of his nervousness.

'Thank you for trying to make me feel better Naruto-kun.' And with that they continued walking. They walked for several minutes before Naruto burst it with a question. The sudden break of silence caused Hinata to jump although Naruto didn't seem to notice it.

"Hey Hinata! Why are we talking to your father about me living here and not the person who owns the place? Wouldn't that make more sense?"

Hinata paused momentarily 'Did he forget my father is the leader of the clan? He probably just wasn't paying attention… which means he doesn't think what I say is important.' A dark cloud descended on Hinata's mood as she started to explain however Naruto interrupted her.

"Oh wait, your dad DOES own the place doesn't he? He's the clan head or something like that. I think you said something about it in class once. Sorry about that I forgot heheh… It must be nice to be his daughter. I bet you get a bunch of special treatment."

The dark clouds lifted when Hinata heard that Naruto had paid attention to her family at least a little bit before she answers "My father cannot show favoritism towards anyone. Being the Hyuuga clan leader is difficult to accomplish and it is even more difficult to maintain the position. If the council votes you out you will be branded with the cage bird seal and cast to the branch family while you are replaced with a former clan head. He is usually at the mercy of the council in that respect so he has to tread carefully."

"Kind of like Jiji-san." Naruto notes.

"H-hai, a lot like hokage-sama. We are here." Hinata noted stopping before a door that was slightly more ornate and twice as impressive as the others. After knocking three times a commanding voice from inside informed them that they could enter.

Stepping in the room Naruto was blown away by the sheer emptiness of the room. There were so few decorations in the room that it was astonishing. A small plant on top of the dark desk which was surrounded by four chairs arranged in a semi-circle. On the wall opposite of the door there was a small clock. The only decoration other than that was a slightly more impressive chair which seated the man that Naruto could only assume was Hinata's father. He understood the hallways but he had figured that the clan head would be a bit more extravagant. Even the Hokage's office held a large assortment of decorations and color. This room was almost pure white with the exception of the furniture which was a dull wooden color. Yet despite the lack of adornments the room still managed to give off the feeling of power and status.

Hiashi was equally surprised by who his daughter had brought before him 'So this is your friend Hinata. Interesting choice. Most wouldn't associate with him. The nine-tailed fox jinchiruuki Uzumaki Naruto. This could go to my favor very well.' Beckoning to the both of them in slow voice he said "Close the door please." After that had been done he added "Now sit down. We have much to discuss but little time. I shall assume that you are ignorant of certain protocols so I will inform you that you shall address me as Hiashi-sama. I am a patient man but I have little tolerance for disrespect." He paused just long enough for the two teenagers to follow his orders. He noted that Naruto appeared to be nervous. "Now, I hear that your house has been burned down. Have I heard correctly?"

"Yes." Was the only reply Naruto could manage. Something told him that being concise would be a good strategy.

"Short answers, I like that. As I said we have little time. Now as you are no doubt aware we are members of the Hyuuga clan. We are one of the ruling clans of Konoha. We have one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful doujutsu in existence, and forgive me if I sound like I am bragging, but we have an extensive treasury. However we cannot shelter someone for free. We are not a hotel or an apartment complex. As clan head I have been given the task of speaking for my entire family including both the Main and Cadet Branches. Now if I remember properly, please correct me if I'm wrong, you need a place to stay. Normally I would say no without hesitation. However my daughter has taken up for your cause. Tell me why you asked her if you could stay with the Hyuuga clan."

Naruto seemed confused for a moment before he answered "I didn't ask her. I was sitting in the park and she just came up to me and said that I could come live here for a while if it was okay with you Hiashi-sama." Naruto felt as though the already thin ice he was standing on was starting to melt.

Hiashi stayed silent for a few moments pondering the information. "I see. I apologize I was under the assumption that you had asked for this. Now-"

"I wouldn't say no, it's just that it didn't occur to me until she offered." Naruto floundered verbally trying to save his chances.

Hiashi narrowed his eyes "Interruptions are inexcusable Uzumaki-san. It will not happen again in my presence. Understand?" Naruto nodded silently trying not to offend the clan head any more than he already had. "Very well… Give me a few moments to think about this situation." Gesturing towards the door he added "You may wait outside until I am ready. Do not wander off. I will call you back in after I am done thinking."

The two young teens stood up. Hinata bowed and Naruto followed her lead then the two proceeded to the hallway. They sat in silence for a few moments almost too afraid to say anything. "Reenter." Hiashi's voice boomed from the other side of the door. Reentering the room they once again sat down without a word.

"I have given this quite a bit of thought and I have come to the conclusion that you may stay here but on one condition." Hiashi said delicately.

"What would that be Hiashi-sama?" Naruto asked visibly narrowing his eyes. After the Mizuki incident he wasn't exactly going to trust the first person to come along with a quick-fix.

"Currently, nothing. Just be aware that at some point in the future I will call upon you to do something for me."

Naruto was silent for a few minutes "On one condition."

'Negotiation? Interesting.' Hiashi thought before he asked "And that would be?"

"I will not betray someone as a favor. Not the leaf village and not one of my friends."

'I never thought of using him against the leaf. So I suppose that's irrelevant. It's odd though, I didn't think he had many friends. Regardless this is still in my favor.' Hiashi kept silent for a few extra moments to see if Naruto would back down "Very well. You will be sleeping in the servant's quarters. Hinata I have a task for you." Hiashi turned towards his daughter who seemed surprised to be addressed after the exchange "Find someone to escort him there."

"H-hai Father. I will d-do it… It'll be f-faster. Fo-follow me Naruto-kun." Hinata stated rising and starting towards the door.

Just before they left the room Naruto turned back "Thanks Hiashi-sama! You're an alright guy."

Hiashi waited a watched the two teens leave his office before a small smirk made its way to his features. 'I hope this goes to my advantage. I just hope I have not underestimated Hinata's reaction to the boy staying here.'

Walking towards the servants' quarters Hinata turned to Naruto "S-so… Ho-how do you feel about… B-being able to l-l-live here with me? US! Us! The Hy-Hyuuga clan?" Hinata nearly fell when she realized what she had said the first time.

Naruto didn't seem to catch the mistake "I guess it beats living on the streets. I'm just a little surprised your dad let me. I'm not exactly well liked by the villagers."

"Wh-why?"

Naruto stiffened up as he realized his slip of the tongue "Because uh well… Heheh, because I'm such a big prankster people don't really like me being in their homes. They seem to think I'll ruin their stuff or something. Oh well, guess it's what I get for being so good at what I do eh Hinata?"

Hinata immediately knew that Naruto was lying. His fake smile was plastered to his face and was very obvious but she decided that if he didn't want to tell her he didn't need to "H-hai."

They walked for a few more moments in silence before Naruto noticed that several of the people they passed had tattoos on their forehead and without exception they bowed towards the two teens. But he noticed something else about them, something much more familiar. They all held hatred and mistrust.

It was very well hidden. Had he not been so used to it he may not have noticed. The odd thing was that it appeared that the animosity was directed towards Hinata and not himself. Naruto looked over at the girl beside him who turned her head away with a light tint of pink on her face when she noticed he was looking at her. 'Why would they be so angry towards Hinata? Does she treat people in her home differently than she treats people outside of it? She seems like such a nice girl though.' Naruto pondered this for a little while before he spoke up "Hinata?"

"H-hai Naruto-kun?" Hinata replied turning towards her crush though she kept walking forward.

"Why do all those people look at you like that?" Naruto asked as he too kept walking.

Hinata's shoulders slumped as she replied slowly and quietly "It is because I am a main branch member. I'm too weak. It is unacceptable." At this she stopped walking and stared at the ground. Tears were starting to well up in her eyes.

Naruto was shocked at this revelation 'Hinata thinks she's weak?' Naruto pondered this for a few seconds before the solution occurred to him "Alright then, we'll just have to work on making you stronger!"

"Wh-what?" Hinata asked looking up to see Naruto's cerulean eyes ablaze with determination.

"Simple! I'll help you get stronger! If you don't think you're strong enough the only thing to do is to try harder!"

"Bu-but, I'm too weak Naruto-kun." Despite her protest she felt something start to seep into her very being. She just couldn't identify what it was.

"Well then let's just train as hard as we can until you're stronger! I'll help you get stronger if it's the last thing I do! Come on Hinata! You can do it! I believe in you!"

'Naruto-kun believes in me?' Hinata thought to herself as her doubts seemed to wash away in the light that was Naruto's faith in her.

"You would be wasting your time Naruto-san." A cold voice stated from an opening door. "Forgive my intrusion I could not help overhearing your conversation and felt it my duty to save you some time."

"Who the hell are you to saw anything! Hinata will become stronger! Believe it!" Naruto shouted turning to point at the young man who had emerged from the room.

"Hinata is destined to be weak. She cannot change." The boy stated with a smirk "But if you must know my name it is Hyuuga Neji. I am of the cadet branch."

"Well we'll show you! Hinata will become stronger than you could ever dream!" Naruto shouted red in the face. "I can't stand it when someone thinks they can stomp on someone's dreams like that! You'll see!" and with that he grabbed Hinata to turn around and leave despite the fact that he had no idea where he was heading. All he knew was that he wanted to get away from Neji as soon as possible in order to start helping Hinata get stronger to prove to him that she could get better.

Hinata was unable to find words to voice her opinion. She was happy on one hand that Naruto would decide to stick up for her, but she had to agree with Neji, there was no way she could ever get stronger. She was weak and she'd always be weak. The small amount of hope that Naruto had built in her came tumbling down.

"Just like a pair of failures." She heard Neji state as they walked away, she also felt Naruto's grip became a little more rigid "They always tend to stick together." Naruto's grip was becoming painful "Makes them feel better to be with their own kind." Hinata's arm was becoming very sore "They especially like to become friendly with those who are even weaker than themselves." Naruto had brought them to a halt and was starting to tremble in anger. "But to see the dead last resort to it is surprising. I didn't think you'd be this good at it either Naruto-san. You must have done a lot of research to find someone even more destined to failure as yourself. It must…" but whatever was about to be said was lost when Neji heard a small thud to the right of his head..

"Shut up you bastard! Me and Hinata will become two of the most powerful ninja ever! I'm gonna be the Hokage and she'll get so powerful you'll be begging her not to kick your ass up and down the damn street!" Naruto shouted drawing a second kunai to begin another assault "Besides who are you to judge her! You're all talk!"

Neji pulled the kunai from the wall before tossing it lazily back to the spot between Naruto's feet "If this is your way of challenging me to a sparring session I must decline. I have training to attend to and I don't think it would benefit me to have such a light training session."

"See! You're trying to get out of it you cowardly cross-dresser!"

"You seem to misunderstand me Uzumaki-san. I am saying that were we to spar it would be no challenge. I would win hands down. It is fated to happen. I was rookie of the year and have had many more years of experience than you. Meanwhile you are widely known as dead last, graduating only due to the fact that you are favored by the Hokage."

"Well then it shouldn't take you too long to win then should it? Why not prove it?" Naruto shouted closing the distance between them rapidly.

"Wait." Neji said softly and surprisingly Naruto did pause "Fighting in the halls would be most unseemly. If you insist on losing follow me. We shall go to one of the indoor sparring rooms. To make it even somewhat interesting I won't use the Byakugan. This way, follow me." And with that Neji led Naruto away with Hinata trailing along.

Hinata was panicking on the inside about how badly Neji would hurt Naruto. She had faith in him, but Neji was on a whole different level. She had seen Neji defeat Hyuuga members several years his senior. She honestly couldn't remember the last fight Naruto had won.

They traveled in silence for several minutes. Hinata glanced at Naruto and Neji almost compulsively. The two teenagers seemed in every way different. Neji travelled with a calm composure, almost as if he were escorting them through the house to for some mundane errand. Naruto on the other hand was trembling with both anticipation and anger. Hinata couldn't stop herself from wondering what she appeared to be doing in this group. 'Probably trembling with fear.' She thought to herself.

"Here, this one will work well enough. It seems to be appropriate enough." Neji said when they arrived at one of the smaller training areas where adults would take children to train. Hinata got the feeling that he had picked it for their battle ground as an insult.

If this was the case the idea was totally lost on Naruto "Alright ya jerk, I'm gonna get you down with one hit!"

"Hinata, you will proctor the fight." Was Neji's only response as he stood with his arms crossed in front of himself, almost as if he were merely going to watch Naruto instead of fight him. During this exchange his eyes never once left Naruto.

"Oh well um…" Hinata seemed to shrink from the idea of choosing when to end the fight. 'I'd rather end it right now…' she thought solemnly to herself.

"Whenever you say go Hinata, I'll kick his ass."

"Um… go…" Hinata mumbled just loud enough for the two teenagers to hear her.

Naruto never knew what hit him. One moment he was preparing to move in order to use his Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, the next he was on the ground in agony. He felt like a burning rod was traveling through his bloodstream.

"One hit. I believe that is how many you allowed yourself correct?" Neji spoke from above him looking no worse for wear. Naruto had no idea how Neji could have moved that quickly. "I found that it was only fair to limit myself as well." Neji's face gained a small smirk at this point "I think that I disproved your little theory that people can become better than their fate." And with that Neji began to walk away towards the door "He is unable to get up. I believe I won."

Hinata was shocked to near speechlessness to see how quickly her crush had been defeated "I-I…" was all she could manage.

"Heh… I guess you weren't all bark…" Naruto said from the floor. Neji turned to look at the small boy and was surprised to see that he could move at all. He was standing up. Very slowly and each word looked like it was causing him great agony. "I'll give you this one. But people can change… and… if they try hard enough… they can become great. Next time… I'll win… Just you wait."

"I commend your… tenacity. But fate decided who won here. Fate has already decided who will win. If you insist on challenging me again, the outcome will be the same." Neji said all of this over his shoulder as he started to walk towards the door.

"Me and Hinata… we'll get stronger together. We'll be able to beat you within a year… Believe it!"

The only indication that Neji had heard him was a small 'hmph' that could be heard before the door closed.

"N-Naruto-kun, are you okay?"

"Heh, it'll take more than that to keep me down. I've had a lot worse." Naruto was finally able to stand on his legs "Though, never that quickly…"

"I'm sorry…" Hinata started but Naruto interrupted her.

"Sorry for what? I challenged him. I should have taken it more seriously. It really did sound like he was bluffing. We'll get him next time."

"You… you meant what you said?" Hinata had thought that Naruto's boast of them becoming strong enough to beat Neji was only something that Naruto had said to try one last time to try to bother Neji.

"Of course I meant it." Naruto was feeling well enough to give a small smile to Hinata, who felt her heart flutter, before saying "And I never go back on my word. Believe it!"

* * *

A/N: Happy Halloween kiddo's. I hope you enjoy this chapter as much, or more, than the last one! I know I'm gonna get hate mail for having Naruto say any amount of Believe it, but it just felt right there. Don't worry, he won't spout it off like a Gatling gun, in fact I don't think he'll say it too much again. I hope you all have a safe and fun Halloween, and don't forget to eat AROUND the razor blades. Or do eat them. Whatever.

If you have complaints, questions, congratulations, or just nice things to say, feel free to tell/ask/give/tell me any of them.

EDIT: I had PLANNED on this being released on Halloween however a couple of things caught my eye that needed to be fixed which is why this is late. Hope it's not a problem.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 "Discussions and Practice"

A/N: Alright. I don't feel like saying a whole lot with this Author's Note. All I can say is I hope you enjoy the story.

* * *

Hinata sat intently watching the door that led to the outside of the training room almost dutifully. While she had been practicing the speed with which she could activate her Byakugan she noticed that her blonde haired crush was heading towards the compound.

At first she was able to push her thoughts of him to the side to focus more on her training. The few weeks he had been living here had been relatively smooth with only a small hiccup here and there, most coming from his lack of proper etiquette, and as such she had become slightly more accustomed to being in his presence. For his part Naruto seemed to be taking his vow to help her get stronger very seriously as he spent most of the free time he could spare training with her. Although she had to admit that this was not a lot of time since their training schedules varied so drastically. However any amount of time with Naruto was welcome.

It was only when her Byakugan enhanced eyes noticed that he was heading towards the training rooms did she become unable to focus on her training and instead started staring at the door a small smile spreading as he got nearer and nearer.

When Naruto opened the door to the training room Hinata was supposed to be in he was greeted by an eerie sight. He had seen the Byakugan while active only in passing a week ago while watching Hinata spar with her father. However, like his own match with Neji, the match lasted only a short while before Hiashi declared it over due to fact that Naruto was watching. Now that he had an opportunity to examine it in detail he found that it was oddly unfitting on Hinata's face. Something about how fierce it was didn't seem to fit on the young girl. The smile she wore however seemed to make it only more frightening. _"Happiness and the Byakugan do not mix. Got it." _

Hinata for her part seemed to realize her mistake rather quickly and deactivated her bloodline. "He-hello Naruto-kun. How we-were missions to-today?"

"Boring as always. I mean I've been a genin for a month and I'm still just painting fences and catching cats. The one that the one lady has keeps getting me really bad. I should be out there protecting princesses and important people. Not getting my face scratched off by cats or helping old ladies with their groceries!" His voice had grown increasingly loud throughout his tirade until he was very near shouting.

"Uh Naruto-kun…" Hinata did find it a little cute that he thought he was ready for something so high profile, she would have found it more adorable if she didn't know he was missing the point "There is a re-reason that th-they have us doing sm-small task like th-that."

"What reason could they possibly have for that?"

'_Naruto-kun, were you not paying attention in class?' _Hinata almost spoke this aloud before she caught herself, she knew he wasn't the greatest student ever, so it probably had just slipped his mind "We-well it is supposed to fos-foster teamwork and pre-prepare us for the shi-shinobi lifestyle. They have to make sure that we are as pre-prepared as we can be be-bef-fore they let us try to pro-protect princesses."

"I still don't like them dumping the easy ones on us." Naruto pouted a bit despite the fact that he could see why they would. He had considered making Konohamaru and his friends do it for him earlier just so he wouldn't have to.

"I do not think they will ever give a fresh out of academy student a C-rank, or anything higher-profile th-then a D-rank."

"C-rank?" Naruto asked. He stared at Hinata as she paused for a long while. He had the distinct feeling that she was wondering if he was joking.

After a few moments in silence however, Hinata continued speaking "Well there are five ranks of mi-missions and these same ranks are app-applied to ninja capable of those missions. D-ranks are the low-lowest and as such are the easiest to complete. C-ranks are gen-generally for highly sk-skilled genin and chu-chunin. B-ranks are si-similar. Jounin are the ones who are usu-usually assigned these duties but Chunin al-also take part of them. A ranks are al-almost exclusively Jounin bu-but a chu-chunin accompanying th-them is not unheard of. S-ranks are the mo-most dangerous bu-but I am afraid I do n-not know who ta-takes them sin-since they are usually the uh… well… secretive. They do not let many genin study them." Hinata's face was blazing hot by the time she was done talking due to the undivided attention of the blonde who was staring at her with a dawning amount of understanding. "So as a genin we would only be able to do D-ranks or maybe a C." Hinata's final sentence was rushed as she wanted to be able to stop talking as soon as possible.

"Huh, you must be really smart to remember all that Hinata! I don't think anyone else would have bothered to memorize that." Naruto spoke up almost instantly after her final sentence.

"We-well thank you Naruto-kun." Hinata knew that this was common knowledge; however a compliment from her crush wasn't something she would pass up easily.

There was a slight pause before Naruto spoke up again "You said that ninja are ranked like that too right?"

"Hai." Hinata briefly wondered where he could be going with this before he answered her unspoken question.

"Well where would you rank people in our class?"

"Huh? Oh uh… like who?"

"Well… You said most would be D-ranked right so uh… let's do it like this: I'll say a name, and you say their general rank and then their rank within their rank."

"Um… what do you mean?" Hinata was confused by what he had said, general rank was easy enough to understand but rank within their rank was an odd phrase.

"Well if they're a genin they'd be a D right? So if they're a good genin they're a D-A or if they're almost a Chunin they're a D-S. But if they suck they're a D-D alright?"

"Uh… well… alright." It was obvious from Naruto's point of view that she didn't want to say anyone was bad.

"Don't worry about it Hinata, I won't tell anyone alright? Just be as honest as you can please?"

This was enough to convince her, it was just a harmless conversation. No one else would hear, what's the worst that could happen. "Hai Naruto-kun, I will be honest with you."

"Okay then um… Sakura-chan?"

'_Of course he would start with her…' _Hinata nearly shook her head as she banished the dark thought from her mind "Well she has good chakra control… but she um… seems to put off her training in order to dote on Sasuke so… I guess a D-C rank."

Naruto seemed to ponder a bit before continuing "Shikamaru?"

"He does not work very hard so… D-D."

"I woulda said that too… What about your team-mates?"

Hinata became visibly uncomfortable "Kiba D-C and Shino D-B."

"What about you?"

Hinata stared at the floor for a few moments before she answered "I am hardly a threat. Academy-D. Which is being generous…"

"That's bullshit!" Hinata visibly jumped after hearing Naruto speak up so quickly "You're a pretty big threat compared to the rest of us. You're smart and you have great chakra control right? All you need is a little bit of confidence and you'd be a D-S or better. I know it. You're probably the closest to C-rank compared to the rest of us."

Naruto had no idea but this small speech meant more to Hinata than he could possibly imagine, starting to smile a little Hinata said "Arigatou Naruto-kun."

"Don't let anyone tell you you're weak alright? You're just a little shy about your abilities. Once you get some confidence you'll be kicking everyone's ass."

Hinata blushed at the odd compliment but didn't say anything else on the subject "S-so who else?"

"Well how about me? Be honest, S-S? S-A at the lowest?"

"D-D…" came the swift reply.

The sudden and harsh nature of the reply shocked Naruto for a bit "Wh-what?"

"Y-y-y-you ju-just do not ha-have the knowledge Na-Naruto-kun. You said be honest. Please do not be mad but you did not really pay attention in school and you cannot do some of the bas-basic jutsu oh please do not be mad. Please do not be mad." Hinata seemed close to tears as she pleaded with Naruto to not be mad at her.

"I'm not mad Hinata… It's just… a little harsh. But you're right I guess… I can't get better if people aren't honest with me so… thanks for being honest. I did ask you to be honest."

"Y-you will get bet-better fast Naruto-kun… it is just… com-compared to the oth-others…" Hinata still seemed to believe he was angry with her.

"Hinata, calm down. I'm not happy about the verdict but it's not your fault. Besides, you don't know all my tricks yet." He said the last part with a small smile and a wink that somehow sent her heart racing.

"Al-alright Naruto-kun… still…"

"Hinata, it's okay. I understand what you meant, let's just move on alright? How about Sasuke-teme?

"C-D. He is probably the closest of any of… us… to… Naruto-kun?" Hinata noticed that Naruto had stopped looking at her, and his features, which before had held an accepting look now held a small and steadily growing amount of anger. "Naruto-kun I…"

Naruto didn't listen to another thing she said after that, he just couldn't believe it.

When the door slammed behind him Hinata couldn't help but hate herself _'How could I forget that he does not like Sasuke? I probably made him think I like Sasuke better than him. Naruto-kun might even think I dislike him in comparison…' _She soon found that she couldn't stand to stay in the training room any longer and decided to head towards the one place that always made her feel calm.

'_I can't believe that she thinks that ass-hole's better than me! She's probably one of his fan-girls too. She doesn't even seem like the type. Sure I'll admit the guy's okay but why does everyone seem to think he's the end-all be-all! Even Hinata! It's so… weird. Is it just a woman thing or something? What does he have that I don't? He's just a bastard who can do a few tricks better than a few other people. To hell with this.' _Naruto slipped his hands into his pockets and felt his family's scroll touching his smallest finger. "I guess I should probably start training with this thing. Between… her and Kakashi-sensei I haven't had any time to try it." He realized that he should have taken this more seriously but something held him back. The small possibility that maybe the Hokage was just having a sick joke on him. Offering a final link to his family when in fact it was just a dead end. "No! Jiji-san would never do that to me!" He shook himself from his dark thoughts before he opened up a door slightly larger than the others.

Upon noticing that it was a training room Naruto immediately walked inside and shut the door. "Okay, now time to read this thing." A small amount of hesitance was his only obstacle now. "Alright… let's do this." And with that he opened the scroll as fast as he could and began reading.

_Shinsei Kuchiyose Seshuu:_

_Ninja animal summons are an important part of any ninja's repertoire. Anything from dogs to monkeys to fish to snakes are used for varying purposes including but not limited to: offence, tracking, and sentry duty just to name a few. A shinobi must be able to work together with others in almost any situation. However at certain times having a group of people with you will only result in getting you and your team killed. In situations like these the Kuchiyose technique is used to bring allies to the battle field for assistance. These intelligent creatures will generally require an offering of the summoner's blood and chakra before they will consent to appear. Usually one would have to sign an exclusive contract in order to summon a creature, however those in possession of this bloodline will be able to avoid signing a contract all-together. Herein lies the greatest advantage of someone capable of Shinsei Kuchiyose Seshuu, an infinitely diverse army of summons to fight beside you._

Naruto paused at this point "So I can summon whatever I want… " Naruto nodded before he continued reading.

_The summoning process is a little different due to the nature of the bloodline limit however and as such it is suggested that beginners start with a summon that lacks a complex skeletal structure. As such one of the most basic summons is a slug._

"Slugs? What the hell would a slug be useful for!" Naruto was near shouting, his earlier anger at Hinata was starting to become a rage at the creators of this scroll for picking such a worthless first summon "Why not… snakes or something! They'd be easy too wouldn't they? No bunches of skeleton to summon there…"

_Another popular first choice is the snake._

Naruto almost smacked himself at this point.

_However since slugs are the easiest to learn for beginners this scroll will teach how to summon slugs first. A word of warning…_

Naruto stopped reading at this point and skimmed down to where there were several detailed pictures which showed what hand signs to make. "Alright, this isn't too hard is it?" after several attempts at putting the hand signs together Naruto decided he was ready to try it for real.

"Alright here I go!" flashing through the hand signs Naruto channeled chakra through his hands before biting his thumb as the instructions had indicated "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" slamming his hand to the ground he felt the chakra release.

Nothing happened. "What? I did everything it said!"

"You are not putting enough chakra into the summon." A calm voice said from behind him.

Whirling around to face the new arrival Naruto immediately said "What are you doing here?"

Hiashi Hyuuga looked towards the small blonde teenager with a small amount of wry amusement "This is my home Naruto, I believe that allows me to go where I want." Hiashi paused as though expecting Naruto to show some form of amusement. When Naruto's face remained impassive he continued "Although, if this is not the case I would also like to point out that this happens to be my private training room."

"Oh well I um… didn't mean to… it's just that it looks like all the others and…" coming out of his stupor Naruto quickly started to ramble, however, just as quickly, Hiashi stopped him.

"It is alright Naruto; you had no way of knowing. It is rather similar to the others and I do not think anyone would have informed you. It becomes second nature after a while. Whose room is where that is. As such there is hardly a need to tell people and I will admit that we Hyuugas tend to forget that others lack our… sense of direction. Now, I was looking for you for two reasons. As we have not spoken since the first day you came here I wished to see how you have enjoyed the compound so far."

"Oh it's great! A little confusing and I was actually wondering something, if I may ask Hiashi-sama."

"Feel free."

"Why am I not allowed eating with Hinata? Every time it's time to eat she just disappears and… Not that I'm complaining I was just curious."

"It is the simple fact that she is an heiress and you are, pardon me for saying so, not of her station. I do not mind if you two are friends, however, certain protocol must be followed." Hiashi stated.

"Oh alright… well what was the other thing ya wanted?" Naruto paused for a second before adding "Hiashi-sama."

"Well I have heard through several channels that you had an altercation with Neji."

"Neji's just a jerk who needs a good ass-kicking is all that was. All that talk of faith. It's a bunch of crap." Naruto said with no small amount of venom in his voice.

"You seem to dislike my nephew." Was Hiashi's only response.

Naruto's jaw dropped as he swiftly tried to explain "We-well wh-wh-what I uh mean was th-that…"

Hiashi however interrupted "No, I must say that I find your honesty a little refreshing. So few refer to him as anything but a prodigy it is appreciated to know that I am not the only one who has noticed his… bitterness. I was hoping he would take his father's death better than that. He blames me for it I am afraid. To be honest maybe…" Hiashi was quiet for a few moments as he gazed pensively at the ceiling. "Well never mind, it is none of your business. If you wish to learn about it ask Neji. It is his concern who learns about the incident. Now as for your summoning jutsu…"

"How do you know about it? Oh uh… sorry for interrupting Hiashi-sama." Naruto started to bow but a small cough caught his attention.

"We will consider my earlier interruption an equal trade for your current one. People slip into old habits and I will not punish you too harshly for it. Just be sure to fix this problem as soon as possible. Now to answer your question. I have been a clan head for quite a few years and before that I was a high ranking Jounin. I have seen a large number of summoning jutsus to realize their basics. Although I must admit that I can not quite place which animal you are trying to summon." Hiashi paused for a moment as though wondering, which Naruto took as a hint not to say anything "It appears that you were trying to summon a slug. However it did not look the same. Almost as if it were a different summon."

"Well slugs are the easiest to summon according to my scroll."

"Ah you have already signed the slug scroll? You are a bit young to have been given that responsibility but if you have I cannot judge you for it. Now allow me to tell you something about summoning jutsus. They require a lot of chakra. A very large amount. Much more than an average genin would have." With that final statement Hiashi started heading towards the door "Good-bye Naruto, and good luck. Feel free to use this room for another hour or so." And finally he stepped outside and shut the door.

"Does he… know?" Naruto was caught off guard by this possibility. Almost everyone else treated him so horribly because of his tenant. The possibility that a high-ranking clan leader would accept that he and the fox were different entities was an interesting, if not entirely plausible, one. After several seconds of pondering this Naruto decided that it wasn't important at the moment and that he should focus more on his summoning practice. Once again he ran through the hand signs, only to have nothing happen. "Damn it! One more time." And with that fell into the rhythm of training.

Despite only being told to stay for an hour, Naruto lost track of time and it was three hours later, with a nearly depleted chakra reserve and frayed mind that he decided he was at his limit. "One more time though. Just one more try for tonight." Pulling all the chakra he could and finding that he somehow had more than he thought, he started flying through the hand-signs "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" slamming his hand on the ground a large cloud of smoke appeared.

Naruto coughed several times while the smoke cleared. When he could finally see through the rapidly disappearing cloud he noticed there was a large lump sitting there. As he finally could see the details he realized it was a large slug, about up to his knees, with short eye stalks. Its dark green body had a small pair of yellow stripes running from front to back. A second pair of yellow stripes on its face area resembled a mustache, though not a very complete one as it was missing quite a bit from the middle. "Well hell yeah! I did it! What a weird looking slug though… wonder how I get rid of it."

The slug stared at Naruto for a few second before a deep sound resonated from its mouth forming words "Who are you?"

"Holy hell you can talk!"

The slug took several seconds before it replied "I asked you a question first summoner." Its tone seemed to indicate that it was uninterested in this meeting and would much rather be napping.

"I'm… Naruto Uzumaki. I uh… summoned you here."

The slug slowly looked around, taking several seconds before it replied "You are a new summoner." The slug made a sound much like a yawn though it did not stretch or move in any way "This is obvious. Where is your mentor? Where is Tsunade-chan?"

"Who?" Naruto asked before adding mentally _'I bet it takes a while to answer…'_

As Naruto had expected the slug took several seconds before replying "Hm… Tsunade must have fallen. How unfortunate that you should be the one to take up her mantle. May I see the slug scroll then? I wish to mark her deceased upon it before I return."

Naruto was confused about what this _Slug Scroll_ was so he did the next best thing he could think of and rolled out his family's scroll for the large slug. The slug stared at it for a moment before it replied.

"This is not the slug summoning scroll. However something about it seems familiar… I must report to Katsuya-sama on this issue. I will arrive with her verdict when I have it. Before I leave, is Tsunade-sama still alive?"

"Uh… I don't know, I've never met her."

"Very well." Was the slug's reply which came surprisingly fast for what Naruto had come to expect. With those last words uttered the slug disappeared in a thin fog of smoke.

"Who's Tsunade? Or Katsuya for that matter? Oh who cares I'll just ask whenever it decides to show up again I guess…" deciding that he was ready to go to sleep he started heading to his designated room. However something kept tugging at his conscience.

Hinata stood in one of the gardens as the light faded from the world. She always liked the look of lilies at twilight. Something about it made her feel calm; she never could place what it was. She was still trying to figure out how she should apologize to Naruto.

"Hey Hinata…" came a quiet voice from behind her causing her to jump in fright.

"Naruto-kun!" she exclaimed as she twirled ungracefully to face Naruto. Despite her fright she couldn't help but wish she could get a portrait of Naruto in this moment. His face half cast in shadows with expertly cared for flowers causing a serene aura to be cast around them. Almost as though they were in their own little world.

"Hey… I uh… just wanted to apologize for getting all pissed at you earlier I was just… annoyed because you put me so low while he was already Chunin ranked. I acted like a kid and shouldn't have gotten pissed at you for telling me the truth. After all I was the one who asked you to do that in the first place. I just wanted to apologize for how I acted."

"No no Naruto-kun I should have kn-known that you would get angry if I said that. It was just that you asked me and I didn't want to lie and then you got angry and... and well…" all the sorrow she had felt throughout her years came spilling out at that moment as her grief started washing over her in overpowering waves and she couldn't stop herself from crying. She tried to stop, she really wanted to stop but everything seemed to want to come out at once. _'Now he'll think I'm weak and he'll run off and…' _her thoughts were interrupted when she noticed a pair of arms envelope her.

Naruto had no idea if this would work, in fact he was sure it wouldn't, however he couldn't think of anything else to try so he just did what he wished someone would have done for him when he was younger and crying. For her part this seemed to help Hinata as her sobs died down gradually. They stayed like this in the gradually darkening gardens until Hinata's sorrow gave way to pleasant dreams.

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A/N: I hope that you enjoyed this chapter and hope you had/have a good Thanksgiving. Not from America? Happy non-Thanksgiving day. Lastly, did anyone notice my clever joke during the Hinata-Naruto argument/fight/spat thing? If you say you did I'd "believe it." One last thing… LONGEST CHAPTER I'VE EVER WRITTEN! 4,000+ WORDS! Have a good day my children.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 "No Words Were Harmed During the Making of This Chapter"

A/N: Everyone enjoying the holidays so far? Even if they haven't started I just thought I'd see if you're doing fine. Fun fact before we begin the chapter titles are gonna be random things from now on because I am no good at naming things. Plus it helps prevent spoilers doesn't it? That's just a pet peeve of mine. Anyway onto the December issue yes?

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It took all of Naruto's self restraint not to hurl the small creature he was holding at the Hokage "Mission complete Jiji… We got the cat."

"Ah very well, please give it to your client over…" the Hokage began however he was cut off by the large woman.

"Tora! I never thought I'd see you again baby! You managed to get lost again…" the large woman continued to speak to the cat in a voice one would use with a small child as she paid the attendants on duty however none of the ninja present listened to her. They've all heard it before. In fact it had become so commonplace that they had affectionately called missions dealing with the cat Tora-classed. Many of the younger children in the academy thought that a Tora-class mission was something full of honor and glory. All were disappointed when they learned what Tora-class missions actually were.

During this whole episode however the Hokage was speaking with Team Seven. "So Team Seven I see that your mission was a success and that no one was harmed…" he paused when he thought he heard Naruto say something along the lines of 'I got hurt.' However due to the quiet nature of the comment he couldn't be sure "As I was saying, you're next task will be a D-ranked mission and it will be to assist in helping the Bushi family construct a fence around their…"

"No! No no no no no! I won't do it old man! I absolutely refuse to be given another boring mission!" Naruto finally couldn't take it.

'I'm surprised he lasted as long as he has…'Iruka thought as he forced his face to contort with with rage "You will do whatever mission is assigned to you by Hokage-sama!"

"I'm tired of all these boring missions!" Naruto shouted towards Iruka before once again turning towards the aged Hokage "Come on Jiji-san! Give us a better one!"

Sasuke was watching this whole proceeding with an aloof interest 'Even the dobe has to be right sometimes it seems. These missions are tedious and not befitting someone of my talent and status.'

Sakura however was taking a much harsher view of the situation, while fighting the urge to smack Naruto for his insubordination 'How annoying can you get? I mean really now, just because these missions aren't filled with glory doesn't mean they're all bad. After all we get paid for it and we get to hang out with Sasuke-kun! What's not to love?'

Iruka finally couldn't take any more as he stood up to yell at his favorite student "You are just a rookie! Everyone starts with easy jobs and works their way up!"

Naruto took a step forward as he replied "Yeah, but we have the two top ranked genin from the graduating class on our team so shouldn't we be applying this to something more than catching cats!"

Iruka was visibly surprised at the logic of what Naruto said but he quickly recovered "Regardless ALL of you are just starting out! There is no reason for you to get anything difficult!"

"What about a low C-rank?"

"A…" Iruka started but was once again surprised 'He was paying attention in class for that? I'm impressed!'

Kakashi chose this point to step forward "While you do make a very good point Naruto I don't think that Hokage-sama would give you a mission like that. Even if all of us were-…"

"Very well." Hiruzen spoke up.

"Wh-what?" Iruka had nearly forgotten that the Hokage was beside him with how quiet the old man was being.

"They can have a C-rank."

"Bu-but they're just starting out! They…"

"I'm well aware of this Iruka. However it appears that Naruto, the worst of the team, feels they are ready for a low C-rank." Naruto frowned at this "And if he thinks that he and his team-mates can handle it I don't see why it would hurt. Besides I just happen to have one that a few gening would be able to handle by themselves. With the legendary Kakashi Hatake with them I'm sure that this will be a almost literal walk in the park."

"But they're just starting…" Iruka started but was stopped when the Hokage started speaking in a low tone.

"Iruka… I am your superior officer. Are you really going to question me I front of these impressionable genin? What if they learn a bad habit from you going unpunished? We couldn't have that. So if you really want me to show them what happens to those who disobey their superiors by all means continue."

"Yes Hokaga-sama. I'm sorry Hokage-sama." Was Iruka's swift response as he sat back in his chair quietly.

Hiruzen smiled before he spoke again, this time to the genin "Now if you think you're up to it, I think you'll do well with this protection mission…"

Naruto interrupted, his excitement getting the best of him "Alright! Are we protecting a princess or a… wait… Low C-rank… The way Hinata explained it that's nothing big so um…" Naruto paused as he pondered his excitement draining marginally "Alright who is it? Some old drunk who can't even walk twenty meters before he falls flat on his face?" all four members of Team Seven turned around when the door opened behind them.

There stood an old man obviously from a coastal region "I can walk twenty meters ya brat! Hell I can even walk twenty three without help." He paused as he took a drink from his sake bottle "It's at twenty three and a half where the trouble starts." He shook with laughter at his joke although no one else in the room did.

After the man's laughter died down Sarutobi spoke again "Well Team Seven this is Tazuna and he's…"

"A super bridge builder. So this is the team that's with me? I thought I signed up for Ninja protection and not a bunch of snot-nosed brats straight outta the crib. Hell the short one doesn't even look like he's out of diapers yet."

The Hokage started speaking with Tazuna about the finer mission details and his utmost confidence that Team Seven was prepared however the members of said team were having a small conversation to themselves.

"Pst… Kakashi-sensei, what happens if we kill him?" Naruto whispered as he leaned sideways towards the older man.

"Hm…" He paused to think for a moment "Well I suppose, if no one notices, that we just don't get paid. Oh, and it goes down as a failed mission which wouldn't look good on your record." Pausing for a moment he added "Or mine for that matter. So I'd appreciate it if you didn't kill him."

Naruto pouted for a few second before replying "Fine. But I won't like hanging out with him."

"No one's asking you to Naruto."

"Hey! Don't ignore me you little bastard!" Tazuna spoke up from his location near the Hokage, who was shaking his head distastefully, as he noticed Naruto not listening to him "I see you over there talking to that mask guy. Whatever… Just make sure to give me super-protection until I get back to my homeland and complete my bridge. After that you can be short and stupid all you want." Tazuna roared with laughter at his own joke.

Sakura frowned at the old man 'I may not like Naruto but even I gotta say that's a little harsh.'

"Well…" Kakashi rubbed the back of his head as he eyed his increasingly angry pupil "How about you three go get prepared while I discuss a few things with the client? I think it'd be a good idea to meet up at the village gate in about… an hour?"

After all three of his students nodded with varying degrees of slowness resulting from confusion, apathy, and anger Kakashi dismissed them.

'This mission is much more befitting someone of my talent. I suppose I owe the dobe one for managing to get this mission for me. I suppose this just reinforces on of Father's favorite sayings.' Sasuke said the last part aloud "Even those who are weak have their uses."

Sakura was much slower heading towards her home as it wasn't very far away and to hurry would likely cause her to sweat which is something Sasuke wouldn't like. "I need to look my best after all." As she ran a hand through her hair she thought back to the client "I hope he's not always this mean. Maybe once he sobers up a bit… Still it's a mission with Sasuke-kun so a drunk client would probably move slower meaning more time with Sasuke-kun!" Sakura giggled slightly "I hope he's drunk all the time." She could barely contain her excitement.

Naruto found it harder than usual to restrain his anger as he entered his assigned room in the Hyuuga household. It was nearly as bare as the usual Hyuuga room with the exception of a small photograph of him and his team-mates.

Nearly slamming the door he started ranting the second he was sure his hosts would not hear "That old bastard needs some respect beaten into him." He fumed as he collected several of his items in a much more efficient manner due to the cleanliness of his room. "I'll show him short and stupid..." he grumbled before pausing a moment "Uh no, I'll show him how NOT short or stupid I am. That'll show him." Grinning with his new, granted not very good, plan he continued to pack for several moment.

A loud knock resonated on the door. "Oh uh… come in?" Naruto was not used to people visiting his room. Heck, he wasn't even accustomed to people visiting his house. One thing that hadn't changed since the fire was that people tried to ignore him as much as possible while he was in his room.

The door opened slowly to reveal Hiashi Hyuuga "Naruto may we talk?" when Naruto nodded Hiashi stepped inside and closed the door "I have been informed by the Hokage that you will be participating in a C-rank mission. Your first I believe."

"Yeah but why would Jiji-san tell you? Hiashi-sama?"

"As your semi-permanent host your duties are of import to me. You are a temporary member of the Hyuuga clan and as such I am privy to all your missions. It is my responsibility to make sure you do not become involved in something you should not. At least until you find a new home. Regardless as to that I must request something of you."

Naruto tensed up as he watched Hiashi suspiciously, having not entirely grown to trust the man just yet, as he spoke "Is this about the favor I owe you?"

Hiashi pauses before shaking his head slightly "Not at all Naruto. This is more of a briefing than a request. I apologize for indicating otherwise earlier. Your input is not required. Just listen. Time is short now for both of us so mincing words will only waste time."

'Sheesh… be a bit ruder about it please.' Naruto couldn't help but think to himself as Hiashi spoke.

"You live with the Hyuuga clan and as such your performance will reflect our ability to take care of our guests. If you perform poorly it will reflect badly and there will be negative consequences. For both of us."

Naruto noticed that there didn't appear to be any malice to him. Instead it seemed that Hiashi was, at the very least, generally concerned about his performance. 'Maybe it's not just for me. But it is kind of nice for him to care even a little I guess…' Naruto snapped to attention when he noticed that Hiashi appeared to be expecting an answer "Oh! Uh… No need to worry Jij…" Coughing to cover up his mistake he continued "Hiashi-sama, I'll be the best damn ninja I can be. No one will be able to say anything bad about you guys!"

Hiashi seemed to regard Naruto for a few moments with some sort of vague curiosity before he replied "Very well. I shall leave you to gather your provisions in peace, however, before I go one last thing. You may wish to speak to Hinata before you leave on your mission. I am sure that she will be very eager to hear about your upcoming task. You two seem to be good friends. I am positive that she will be hurt if she finds out about the good news from someone else." With that last word Hiashi opened to door and walked away from the young blonde.

Naruto nearly slapped himself in the face as he hurried to gather the rest of his things. With everything that had happened he had forgotten about Hinata. Glancing at the clock he nearly sprinted at the door. He only had ten minutes left before it was time to depart.

"So anyway, yeah, that's why I'm the best guy on the team." Kiba was boasting loudly outside of the Hokage's building. They had just shown up for Kurenai to get their first mission of the day. Since it was directly after training they were given a few moments to rest outside.

"I may be wrong Kiba, but I seem to recall that you lost both matches against me." Was Shino's reply to the over-eager bragging of his companion.

Without missing a beat Kiba replied smiling "I was just going easy on you. It wouldn't be a good idea to destroy my team-mate's confidence would it?"

Shino poked Kiba swiftly on the arm allowing a bug to rest on his team-mate's jacket "I just planted one bug on your arm. However while you were distracted by this, I planted several more on your leg. You swipe at me but I dodge and retreat. Being none the wiser you are steadily weakened until such a time where I come back to finish the job. Sadly you're drained at this point and I take an easy victory. Hypothetically I just won."

Hinata laughed gently as Kiba joined in"Yeah I guess you did. But you wouldn't last twenty seconds if it were a… hey.. Is that Naruto?"

Hinata swiftly went quiet as she turned to face the approaching orange figure "Yes. That is Naruto-kun."

"I wonder what he's doing all the way out here? I didn't see his team anywhere near here." Kiba's musings were cut off as Naruto arrived.

Catching Hinata in a gentle hug he stared into her eyes "Hinata… I finally realized why you've always been so nice to me. I… I just had to tell you when I found out you felt the same."

"Felt the same?"

"I love you Hinata." Laughing a little as he kissed her cheek he continued "I guess I always have but I just didn't realize it. I know I may not be the greatest ninja yet but… If you'd be willing to try… I'd like you to be my girlfriend. Please?"

Hinata couldn't stop the flow of happy tears "Yes Naruto-kun I would love to be your girlfriend. It is what I have always wanted since I first met you."

Naruto smiled even broader as he softly whispered her name "Hinata…" his lips fell on her own before he withdrew "Hinata…" once again he kissed her swiftly "Hinata…"

"HINATA!" the sudden loudness of the blonde teen before her snapped her out of her day dream "Oh good you snapped out of it! Listen I don't have a lot of time I've got to hurry." Hinata hung her head in embarrassment for day-dreaming while Naruto was trying to talk to her but snapped her head up when he called her name again "I came to say good-bye. I've got a C-rank mission and we're leaving in about two minutes and I can't be late. Sorry I couldn't stay longer! Tell you all about it when I get back! See ya Hinata. See ya Shino. See ya Kiba." And with that the young blonde sprinted in the direction of the village gates.

"I can't believe he got a C-rank mission before us!" Kiba exclaimed "What a rip-off! We could handle a C-rank mission don't ya think Akamaru?" Akamaru barked before Kiba continued "Exactly! I bet he's doing something really fun like fighting bandits! Hell he'll probably have a whole lot of fun… Maybe he'll even end up fighting an enemy ninja or two. Lucky bastard. Not like he could handle it…" Kiba was about to continue before he noticed that Shino was glaring at him.

"Kiba… I am sure that Hinata would appreciate it if you were a little quieter." Moving to stand closer to Hinata who had been standing as though stunned since Naruto left he continued "I am sure that Naruto will be fine Hinata. He never gives up from what I've seen. He won't let anything stop him from coming back to the village to tell you about what he's done."

"Yeah, I mean he's going to be the hokage right? He can't do that if he doesn't come back." Kiba took a stab at trying to rectify his earlier faux pas.

Their attempts to cheer her up meant more to the young Hyuuga than either of her team-mates woud ever know. 'I just hope Shino and Kiba are right. Please stay safe Naruto-kun.' Was her last thought before her sensei returned from the Hokage's office to inform them of their next task.

In a town far away from the walls of Konoha a buxom blonde woman sat in a dirty casino whose name had faded off the sign. Beside her sat a brunette carrying a small pig. The brunette cast unhappy glares at the blonde when she drunkenly called for another hand of card. The brunette woman did not seem shocked at all when the blonde lost "Stupid cards. Ugh I hate these things… Why do I even bother?"

"Because you're a compulsive addict who can't control herself." The brunette's foul mood seemed to spill to the surface.

"I can stop whenever I want. But I don't because that's for quitters and say what you want about me Shizune, I am no quitter." The blonde smiled as she placed more chips on the table before turning towards her companion once again "Besides, what gives you the right to be so angry? I'm paying for your expenses aren't I?"

"Yes. With my money."

"It's an investment Shizune! You'll be rich before the night's out. Trust me." Turning back towards her opponent, a portly balding man in his fifties, she said "Ha, my hand's unbeatable!" whether this was a bluff or honesty was never proven as a large plume of smoke erupted off the table.

"Ah Tsunade-same… You are still alive." Came a slow drawling voice from the cloud of smoke. The instant the smoke had disappated Tsunade was able to make out the medium sized dark green slug with short eye-stalks and yellow stripes.

"Osoi! Of course I'm alive! Who in the hell told you otherwise!" Tsunade's face betrayed her dislike of the slug as she continued "And get off the table. You're ruining the cards."

"Ah hello Shizune-chan. You are beautiful as always. It seems that everytime I see you I think you cannot get any more lovely. But I'm always happy to be proven wrong on this case." The slugs awkward compliment caused the young brunette to smile and nod in thanks. Slowly her turned back towards the gambling senin "As for who told me, it was my last summoner."

The smile on Shizune's face dropped instantly as her mentor turned towards her "Tsunade-sama I…"

"Shizune! Why in the hell would you go around telling the slugs I was dead? Thought you'd become the next big slug summoner huh? Wanted to take a crack at the legendary medic nin? Thought you've gotten good enough to take me out did you? Maybe you just wanted the slugs to abandon me well I can tell you something little girl I…" Tsunade's rant, as well as Shizune ineffectual attempts to explain, were cut off by Osoi.

"It was not the angelic Shizune-chan who implied this."

Shizune breathed a sigh of relief before she asked "Well then who told you she was dead Osoi?"

"A young man named Uzumaki. I believe his first name was Naruto." The slug replied in a much faster tone than he did with Tsunade.

"Uzumaki… That name sounds familiar but I just can't place it." With a small sigh and a wistful glance at the table Tsunade turned towards Shizune "Pack up everything Shizune, we need to leave as soon as possible."

Shizune was so shocked by the reaction her mentor was having that she took a step back "You're done gambling? Really? You still have money though… Not that I'm not glad but… why?"

Tsunade glared at the younger girl "In case you didn't notice something's come up. Some little bastard managed to find where I hid the scroll. I didn't think any of those repossession bastards would be able to find it. Tsk… We need to find him though. I suppose I could always ask Jiraiya. He seems to…"

"The boy is in Konoha."

Tsunade immediately stiffened her look of rage falling into one of shocked sorrow "Konoha… How do you know?"

"He was wearing the head-band. It's similar to the one you wore when you lived there. As well as the one that looked absolutely divine sitting upon Shizune-chan's forhead. It was a different shade though. A slightly lighter blue then you wore."

"Thank you that will be all." Came Tsunade's terse reply.

The slug slowly turned before replying "No respect. Farewell my angelic Shizune-chan." And with that Osoi disappeared in another puff of smoke.

After a small moment of silence Shizune spoke up "Are we… Are we still going?" she knew of her mentors hatred of being near, much less in, Konoha.

With one last longing look at the dealer who gestured at her cards she said "We have to." And with that, they made their way towards the exits to begin their journey.

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A/N: I hope you children enjoyed this chapter. It's the end of the Introduction Arc. Next up… THE WAVE ARC! I wonder what will happen? I mean, it's not like "we can all recite the wave arc in our sleep" –Brown Phantom…. But anyway I plan on doing something a little special with the wave arc and I really hope you enjoy it as much as I have planning it. Merry Chrinnakwanziladays Everyone.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: "Ich Bin Herr Gelee Geback"

A/N: I like the German language. Such a beautiful language. Anyway I hope everyone's enjoying their new year so far. Let's get to it.

Also this is the longest chapter I've uploaded so far on this website. Over 5,000 words! Go me!

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"Naruto calm down…" Sakura stated lightly as she tried to contain her joy which probably outstripped that of her blonde team-mate. In fact she said this more out of habit than actual annoyance.

"I can't help it Sakura-chan! This is the first time I've been out of the village!"

"Are you sure I'm going to be safe with this brat? He seems a little stupid."

"Well I'm a jounin so I'm sure my genin can afford to be a little over-excited. I'm one hundred percent sure that at least one fourth of this team will perform perfectly."

"Wow thanks Kakashi-sensei, I won't let you down!" Naruto practically beamed at his mentors words. No one else in the party of five seemed to think the words were meant to build up Naruto but no one mentioned it to the excited blonde as they started on their way. Naruto cast one last look back at their home village just before it went out of sight "I hope Hinata will keep up with her training while I'm gone." He sighed as he turned back towards the road in front of him.

Sakura couldn't help but over-hear Naruto wondering aloud and scooted closer to the blonde "Say Naruto…" She asked slyly several ideas already forming in her head "Why are you so interested if Hinata is training or not?" During the course of that single sentence Sakura had already decided why 'Naruto and Hinata are dating! I bet that pig Ino will flip out when she hears this!'

"I promised to help her kick her cousin's ass."

Sakura stopped walking momentarily and only came to her senses when her sensei cast a glance back at her. Hurrying to catch up with the rest of the group she whispered to Naruto "Wait… Why does she want to kick his ass? She doesn't seem like that kind of person. I always thought she was such a sweet little girl… Questionable taste in men for sure but a sweet girl none-the-less."

"Well he keeps insulting her so…"

"Keep quiet about your love life and your loser girlfriend ya little runt. You'll attract more attention than it's worth." Tazuna chuckled to himself before noticing that his sake bottle was empty. This brief pause let Naruto reply.

"You son of a-…" but another adult decided to put in their two cents.

"While I would have worded it more delicately Naruto, I must agree with our client on this one. There will be plenty of time while we are setting up camp to socialize. Try to pay attention to possible threats instead of focusing on the past. Not to mention that there are a couple questions I have about the mission that I have left until now." Kakashi seemed embarrassed at this point "So that means I need to be able to hear him."

The group walked in a sort of silence with the only noises being Tazuna and Kakashi talking. When they stopped Sakura looked up towards a tree. 'Weird… I thought I saw something up there… Must have been a squirrel or something.' At this point a question occurred to her "Kakashi-sensei?"

"Yes Sakura?"

"Are there any ninja in wave country?" She felt a little foolish for asking.

'I thought they told you kids about this in the academy…' Kakashi thought about the slipping standards in this time of peace before he replied "Well no. Not in wave country."

To everyone's surprise Naruto chimed in at this point "Aren't there only five countries that have ninja?"

Tazuna seemed interested at this point "I heard it was a bunch of places actually."

Kakashi sighed before he replied "I see some information is in order for those of us who are less informed. There are five very powerful ninja villages as Naruto guessed towards. These are the only villages where the leader is assigned the title of Kage. The villages are Sand, Leaf, Mist, Rock, and Cloud. But like our honorable client pointed out almost every country has some form of shinobi program. None of them would be anywhere near as large or extensive as our villages though since we use shinobi to make a living. Most other countries, excluding the other four great villages, use ninja primarily as a deterrent for war. Sadly coming from a great village blinds most ninja to the power of these smaller villages. If they all banded together they may be able to stand up against, or possibly overpower, a great village. But political tensions…" Kakashi paused for a second as he looked straight ahead. Naruto would have sworn that he was looking at a puddle for some reason. "Sorry about that. I didn't get all the sleep I needed last night. As I was saying political tensions prevent this from happening. Heh… I appear to have rambled a bit. How are you holding up Tazuna?"

Tazuna smirked as he replied "Oh I'm great just as long…"

"What the hell!" a bladed chain wrapped itself around Kakashi as two ninja appeared in the midst of the road.

"One down." The raspy voice rang from inside the re-breather of the wilder looking one and with that the two yanked on their chain and tore the oldest ninja into a mess of bloody pieces right in front of the terrified genin and Tazuna.

"Come on Shino just admit that bugs can't hold a candle to dogs as a ninja companion!" Kiba exclaimed at his bug-wielding team-mate. The two of them had been arguing for nearly a whole hour while the team waited for their sensei who seemed to be running late. This wasn't the first time however this was the longest they had gone without Kurenai's guiding hand to help them.

"In direct combat you are correct Kiba. However in stealth missions and indirect combat a dog is inferior to my insects. No matter how well trained someone is they will not suspect a small insect of anything. That is, of course, assuming they notice it in the first place. A dog attracts too much attention."

"Who wants to use bugs though? That's so boring. Dogs are much more fun. Combat is where all the glory is."

"I would rather be bored and alive than dead after having a little fun. Also in my favor is that bugs are easier to replace. What would you do if Akamaru was killed?"

Kiba glanced in worry at his partner who was napping beside a tree. He honestly couldn't answer Shino's question. He was aware that Akamaru would die years before he would but every time the thought crossed his mind he pushed it away and focused on something else.

"I apologize. I appear to have gone too far."

Kiba snapped out of his contemplative silence to answer his friend "No worries. It was a good point. But I won't have to worry about that kind of thing for years… Where is Kurenai-sensei!" He shouted the last part in frustration "She's never been this late before."

Hinata silently stood at this point and started practicing her jyuuken on a nearby tree. Her two team-mates watched her silently for a few minutes before Kiba spoke up.

"What are you doing Hinata?"

Without the slightest pause in her practice she replied "I have to get stronger… Na-Naruto-kun is go-go-going to be co-counting on me wh-when the ye-year is over so I cannot fail him." She paused for a few strikes before she continued "I ca-cannot waste ti-time ju-just because Kurenai-sensei is late. I ha-have to ke-keep trying."

Kiba stared at his female team-mate for a few moments. She wasn't usually this driven. She had told the two of them about Naruto's fight with Neji as well as the subsequent promise. However Kiba doubted that either of them had believed that it would have affected Hinata in such a way.

"You are correct Hinata. Kiba assist me through a sparring match." Shino also stood and stood several meters away from where he had originally stood as he turned to face Kiba.

"What?" was the only thing Kiba was capable of saying.

"We have team training today. Regardless of if Kurenai-sensei is here or not we must complete our assigned task."

Kiba paused for a second before a large grin spread over his features "Hell yeah! See we don't need her to tell us what to do! We've got this in the bag."

"Is that so? I guess I should just go home then." Said a feminine voice from behind the young Inuzuka.

Everyone, including Hinata, turned to face their tardy sensei "Where the hell were you! You're an hour late!" Kiba shouted at his teacher. He was a forgiving man but the least she could have done was warn them of her prolonged absence.

"Well I would have warned you but I didn't get a warning either. Suffice to say something came up and it took a little longer than usual to fix it."

Shino noted a small blush on his sensei's cheeks as he asked "An entire hour?"

Kurenai looked away briefly, a habit more suited to Hinata, before she replied "Yes. I hurried as fast as I could. Sorry I'm late but I'm here now." Kurenai watched as Shino nodded slowly "So as a gift to make up for how late I was how about something a little different today?"

"Hell yeah! What is it Sensei!" He hoped that it would be a C-ranked mission of some sort. He still wasn't entirely over the fact that Naruto's team had gotten one and his hadn't.

Kurenai smiled as she revealed her surprise "Training with Team Ten!"

If someone had asked Shino his initial opinion of Team Ten he would have admitted that they were slightly disappointing as far as shinobi went. To him they appeared to not be interested in being ninja at all. When his own team arrived Team Ten was enjoying a break. Shino had no problem with that but where he did see a problem was in how they were enjoying it.

Shino himself always enjoyed pondering about what went right and wrong and discussing this with his team-mates. However Team Ten didn't even appear to be a team at all. Unless one had been informed otherwise it would have appeared that they were simply three people who were in the same area. After a brief introduction however each member of Team Ten took a liking to a counter-part from his team.

Chouji was sharing his snacks with Kiba while they debated the benefits and drawbacks of various restaurants while Ino was speaking with, although the conversation looked entirely one sided to Shino, Hinata about how to over-power Sakura and prove once and for all that she was the one to win Sasuke's heart.

Then there was Shikamaru. He had been asleep, according to Chouji, for at least an hour. The bug using genin sighed. Team Ten appeared to have more team-work with his team than they did with each other.

Suddenly Ino sighed loud enough to attract the introverted genin's attention "You guys are really lucky you know. Asuma-sensei is always late." Shino nearly lost interest in this point but returned his attention when Ino continued her conversation with his team "I mean today he was late a whole hour!" Ino made a short sound of annoyance "Gave us some lie about how something came up and it took longer to fix than usual."

'Hm… I appear to have been right.' Shino thought to himself 'This confirms my theory I would think.'

Before Shino could get much farther in his thought process he was brought to a halt by the reappearance of their two sensei.

"I see that all of you are getting along nicely." Asuma said as he lit the cigarette in his mouth "This is UNACCEPTABLE!" the last word was so loud and forceful that even Shino, who prided himself in his calmness, scrambled away from the large man. Glancing towards the two conscious genin from Team Ten he noticed their eyes wide with fear. Shino got the feeling that the group of teenagers had really misbehaved as Chouji and Ino's shocked expression told him that Asuma rarely got this way.

"Heheh… Sorry about that." Asuma's expression went from one of bewildered rage to one of apologetic embarrassment. "I do that every year I get a genin team. It's too funny to see them act like that." Asuma scratched the back of his head before he continued "Anyway it's time for training to start again. Break up into two teams please."

The two teams of genin, including the now awake Shikamaru, gathered into two groups of three. Shino, Hinata, and Kiba stuck together as did Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji. This seemed to disappoint Asuma "Oh… Alright then… I was hoping for more variety. Anyway here's what we're going to do. We are practicing assassination and defending a client. To do this we're going to play a game you might be familiar with. Rescue the Damsel. Now Team One has to rescue this beautiful damsel."

At first the genin thought that Asuma was gesturing towards Kurenai however when she stepped out of the was with an apologetic smile on her face a scarecrow was revealed.

The Scarecrow had a ratty wig of blonde hair sewn onto its head. Its face had beady eyes as well as horribly drawn, with lipstick, lips. It was wearing a purple dress and nearly destroyed blue ninja sandals were tied to the stick that was planted firmly in the ground. However the most obvious characteristic and the one that caused the most uproar was the necklace which held the name…

"I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU NAMED THAT UGLY THING AFTER ME!" Ino shouted gesturing towards the large kanji for 'Ino' on the Scarecrows necklace.

Asuma looked somewhat surprised for a second and opened his mouth to speak but Ino cut him off.

"I mean why in the HELL would you do that you jerk! I'm like six-hundred-thousand times more beautiful than that thing!"

Asuma once again tried to cut in but Ino would have none of this.

"I could understand it if you named it after someone ugly but I mean look at that thing it's-"

It was Ino's turn to be cut off as Asuma explained "Ino! My dad named it… This lovely young lady isn't named after you. It was named way back before you were even a baby. No harm right?"

Ino grumbled for a few seconds before she sighed "Fine… Whatever."

"Okay good. Now Team Two" here he gestured towards Shino, Kiba, and Hinata "has to stop the other team from rescuing our leading lady. However there's a catch to make all of this more interesting!" Asuma started gesturing with exaggerated hand signals "That's right kids! There's a prize! Care to tell them what they're playing for my lovely assistant!"

Kurenai sighed at Asuma's behavior before she said anything "Simple, the losers have to pay for dinner. Also I'm not you're assistant."

Asuma laughed for several moments before he continued "Now me and Kurenai will be adding a few unpredictable twists into this as we see fit. Team two, you must protect our beautiful friend here for an entire hour since I'm hungry and don't want to wait too long. Alright, team one follow me while Team two prepares their defenses. Remember Kurenai no helping them."

Kurenai scoffed at this "I wouldn't help my team any more than you would help yours."

Asuma laughed once again as he led his team away just before he was out of sight he said "You have a half hour to prepare. You'll know when the time starts."

Shikamaru and his team crouched in the nearby brush as they observed their target. Speaking in hushed tones they discussed the situation.

"I can't believe they're so relaxed. It's almost like they're you Shika… They're not even looking for us. I guess they think we're still looking for them."

"Well with how long it took us to find them time is on their side." Chouji offered as a suggestion however Shikamaru spoke up next.

"They already know that we're here." Switching from his crouched position to one a little more comfortable he noticed the looks his team-mates gave him. Sighing he continued "They're a tracking team. Kiba is a member of the Inuzuka clan so he shares their sense of smell. He probably smelt your perfume twenty minutes ago. There's no way we can do a sneak attack at this point and they know it."

Chouji spoke up at this point "You think maybe he could have heard my chip bags instead?"

Shikamaru nodded. It wasn't entirely implausible. However Shikamaru knew the real reason Chouji brought it up. Chouji was always quick to keep his friends out of trouble even if it meant bringing the blame on himself. "We're not cut out for stealth… We need to attack."

Ino looked a little surprised as she replied with a note of interest in her voice "Wow Shika you're not usually this into a exercise."

"It's only a game Ino. Besides it'd be too troublesome to pay for everyone's meal myself."

"What do you mean Shika?"

"You spent all your money on perfume and clothes. So you won't be able to pay. I doubt our senseis' are going to pay. Also Chouji was saving up for your birthday present." Casting a glance at his large team-mate he noted an embarrassed smile "Alright… well we're not going to accomplish anything sitting around. Here's the plan."

Kiba cast a small glance at Shino. He could swear that his secretive team-mate was whispering to the scarecrow. That thought alone was odd enough but the fact that he'd been doing it for the entire session had him worried. Walking over towards his team-mate leaving Hinata to keep watch for a few minutes by herself he said "I can't believe they haven't tried anything yet. Let's just go and…"

"Kiba we must stop them from stealing Han…" a light cough issued from the bug user before he continued "Ino from us. Pretend she is an injured princess if it helps. If they waste the time limit it is beneficial to us."

Hinata started to make her way cautiously over towards her team-mates. "Alright fine… By the way Shino what did you almost call this thing earlier? It sounded like my sis-"

"A slip of the tongue."

"Alright…"

"Co-could we pos-possibly send a few bu-bugs over there to dr-drain them? Just in ca-case they decide to att-attack?"

"Yeah! That won't bother you too much will it oh wise leader?"

Shino regarded Kiba's sarcasm with a small amount of amusement "I already did so earlier. The bugs were killed swiftly. The lazy one seems to know. His were killed first. Shikamaru, I believe, is smarter than we gave him credit for."

"I could capture Shino instead?" Ino asked wondering why she needed to capture the weakest fighter on the team.

"You'd both die. The Aburame clan has to exert a small amount of mental force to top the bugs from devouring from the inside. The split second lapse would give them enough time to start destroying the both of you."

"Ew… Alright then… Let's do this."

A slight breeze whipped through the forest as Asuma and Kurenai watched the genin. A small smirk played on Asuma's face.

"Here they come." Was the only warning the team got from Shino before a net came and ensnared Akamaru. Before any of the team-members could hurry to help the poor dog a large ball of green leapt into the air and started moving towards them and, by consequence, the scarecrow.

Shino and Hinata managed to leap out of the way however as Kiba went to move he realized that he could not move.

"Kage Mane No Jutsu is a success." Claimed Shikamaru as he stepped forward into view.

"Ach! Hinata help!" Kiba shouted as loudly as possible due to the panic clouding his mind as Chouji rolled towards his objective.

"Not a chance dog breath." Mocked Hinata's sweet voice from out of Kiba's line of sight.

"HINATA!" Kiba was shocked that Hinata would insult anyone let alone him.

"Holy hell! She's just… wow! You'd never know just looking at her." Hinata totally ignored Kiba in order to state something that made little sense to the dog-ninja.

Shikamaru sighed as her rubbed his head causing to do the same "Ino stop feeling up Hinata." He turned his head towards his team-mate which allowed Kiba to see as well.

There with a look of odd curiosity, as well as another emotion that Kiba could not identify, stood Hinata feeling her own breasts in full view of everyone. "HINATA!"

Another sigh issued from Shikamaru as he brought Kiba's attention back to himself "It's not Hinata. It's Ino doing her mind switch. Oh and look at that." With this Shikamaru presented Kiba with a view of Chouji, looking nauseous, beside a flattened scarecrow.

"Oh man… I don't feel good."

"Shikamaru we won!" with that Ino rushed towards Shikamaru, still in Hinata's body, and embraced him.

"Not quite." Was the apathetic teen's response as he pushed the indigo haired body of Hinata away from him.

"What do you-" however nothing else was required as a large amount of buzzing issued from the scarecrows location revealing it to be a clone made entirely out of bugs.

This causes Kiba to laugh aloud "Ha! You gotta hand it to Shino! He knows how to hide something! Just give up we've won!"

"Chouji, put an explosive tag on the tree."

Kiba's eyes betrayed surprise for only a second but that was enough for Shikamaru "How did you know?"

"I didn't. I just guessed. You just confirmed my theory. Blow up the tree Chouji so we can stop playing." With this Shikamaru yawned.

"But I don't have explosive notes with me."

After a similar story from Ino Shikamaru sighed "I don't either. Just climb it. It should be on one of the top branches."

"But I'm no good at tree climbing. How can I get up there?"

All of the sudden a kunai with a explosive note came from Asuma's position "Oh no a freak meteor shower!"

The explosion easily felled the tree causing the scarecrow to fall out of it into plain sight reaching distance of Chouji. However when he moved the grab it he fell over.

"Asuma how come you never told me your student had narcolepsy? " Kurenai commented in an offhanded manner.

"Kurenai that's cheating and you know it."

"Oh yeah and the 'meteor shower' wasn't?"

"Alright alright…" Asuma resigned as he made several hand-signs "But this affects both teams equally! It's a new jutsu of mine… For test purposes it's FOG!" and with the last word he exhaled a large amount of smoke into the clearing obscuring everyone's vision.

"ASUMA!"

"What? It affects both teams."

"They'll catch lung cancer from this! Think before you act!"

"Ugh you're always on me about lung cancer. Let it go." A loud smack resonated through the foggy clearing.

Ino watched the interaction between the two senseis with a large amount of amusement. She always got a good laugh from role-reversal which she found ironic considering her blood-line limit. When she laughed out loud however Shikamaru decided to ruin her fun.

"Ino! What are you doing? Get the scarecrow!"

"Why don't you get it Shika?"

"Because I can't see it. You have Hinata's eyes." Shikamaru was starting to grow tired of this game quickly. Despite how talented his opponents were he could only handle so much.

"So?"

A surge of annoyance flashed through his system as he replied "She has the Byakugan! That means you can see the scarecrow now go get it!"

"Oh right… Sorry about that." Walking towards the prone figure of the scarecrow on the ground she started to feel sluggish "I don't think Hinata slept much yesterday." Barely surprising a yawn she smiled as she came closer and closer to the scarecrow "Probably thinking about Naruto." Her legs gave out from under her causing her to crawl in order to proceed looking down she noticed several bugs on her hand "Oh hello buggies… How are you? I'm tired. Do you ever get tired?" the bugs offered no response which caused Ino to giggle "I'm usually terrified of you guys but you're not so bad. Kind of cute actually."

Falling on the opposite side of the scarecrow than Chouji Ino reached towards the scarecrow only to find it out of arms reach. "You know something Ino-chan? Asuma-sensei was right… You are really pretty. Want to go on a date? I'll just take a quick nap and then we can have a night on the town. It'll be the… best… night… ever." And with those final words Hinata's form was still except for the rhythmic rise and fall of her breast.

Hopping down from a nearby tree Shino turned to address Shikamaru "You're friend does not pay much attention does she?"

"Heh, I'm afraid not."

"Ha!" Kiba laughed aloud for several moments before he taunted Shikamaru "It's two against one! You can't win!"

A small smirk caused both of his opponents to grimace "You're right. I can't. But I can make sure that you still lose."

What Shikamaru did next was so unexpected and happened so fast that no one could stop it. Peering through the rapidly lightening fog Shikamaru threw a kunai and pierced the scarecrow through the temple just as the timer rang aloud.

Asuma slowly stumbled from his place on the sidelines towards the unconscious body of Hinata "Ino? Ino? Are… are you okay?" his voice was weak and sounded like a child who was afraid for the safety of a loved one.

"She will be fine. My bugs merely knocked her out. Besides wouldn't her real body be…" however Shino stopped talking at this point as the true intentions of the jounin became clear.

Stooped over the body of the scarecrow Asuma's tears were overflowing despite his best effort "Speak to me beautiful! Come on you'll be okay. No you'll be fine. No please… Don't say things like that. We'll get the best medics to… Yes… I know… Please don't leave me alone… I'll… I'll do it for you… I… I never was able to tell you… I love you… My princess." Unable to contain them any longer the smoker's tears flowed freely as he grieved over the body of Ino the scarecrow.

Finally stepping out of the woods Kurenai glared at the sobbing man "Oh grow up… Well it looks like both teams lost. You guys didn't protect her but Shikamaru's team didn't capture her."

"Oh this is bullshit! We would have won if you didn't cheat!" Kiba growled in frustration as he hurried towards Akamaru to free him from the net.

"I don't cheat. The goal was to rescue our ally. But since we couldn't do that it's our duty as Shinobi to spare them the torture that would surely have occurred if we didn't put them out of their misery." Shikamaru defended himself.

"She wasn't an ally shinobi though." Asuma managed to say between sobs still kneeling beside his beloved scarecrow "She was a beautiful damsel in distress whose rich and powerful father will declare WAR on Konoha for killing his daughter. What do you say to that?"

Shikamaru replies with a heart-felt "We tried to rescue your daughter Mr. Kakashi, however an enemy ninja… By the time we got there it was too late. We did all that we could."

Asuma manages to chuckle at this as he moves to release Chouji from Kurenai's genjutsu "I suppose…" whipping a tear from his eye he helped Chouji to his feet. "What do you guys say, that when Ino and Hinata wake up, we go out and eat?"

After a round of consent from everyone present Asuma turns towards Kurenai "See how happy they are to pay for our food?"

"Hey but neither team won!"

"That's exactly the point. Both of you lost. That means that you have to pay for the victors' food."

"I feel compelled to point out that you and Kurenai-sensei are on our teams." Shino spoke up.

"Us? Oh no we had nothing to do with this mission. We're just innocent bystanders in this Team One and Team Two conflict. As everyone knows the best way to win is to stay uninvolved in a deadly mission." Asuma nodded sagely as Hinata started to stir next to him. A noise in the bushes nearby alerted them that Ino was in much the same state.

"Alright let's go." Shikamaru stated finding it more trouble than it was worth to put off paying for dinner. 'At least I don't have to pay as much as I had feared.'

"Kurenai…" Asuma's tone was grave "We need to eat as much as possible…" A sob escaped his throat as more tears threatened to flow "For all the meals Ino will miss." With one final sob he lead Shikamaru and the confused Chouji and Ino towards town.

"Alright you two… Pick up his girlfriend so we can eat. I feel like barbeque."

* * *

A/N: Wow… that death scene for Ino… I teared up a little bit. Anyways thank you for reading the story I hoped you enjoyed it. Now to do my patented "5 Chapter Milestone Shoutouts" where I thank 5 people who make my stories possible. I do this every five chapters until fans request I stop or until I forget about it. The next shout outs will occur at Chapter 10. Now in no particular order:

1: BrownPhantom: One of my favorite fanfiction writers and the one who issued the challenge which started this story.

2: RoseTiger: One of my most devoted fans… Or maybe just someone who stumbles across my stories at random. Never-the-less your relentless support, however unintended, has persuaded me to keep writing at several opportunities.

3&4: My parents: Without them I would be without life. So I guess they deserve some credit.

5: Misashi Kishimoto: I hope I got his name right… I'd be embarrassed otherwise. Anyway without him there is no Naruto. Granted I have a bone to pick with you over a couple things you did with the manga's direction… But that's beside the point.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: "I like Milkman Hats"

A/N: Well well well… I still have a hard time making up titles. So… Let's get started eh? OH! And by the way I'm handling the wave arc in a way that will skip back and forth. Whenever we get to a part that's canon or very similar to canon I will switch back to Hinata and Konoha in general. So if I change scenes randomly away from Naruto and Team 7 just assume that nothing happened other than canon stuff. Also please keep in mind that this is about how the world is affected by Naruto's situation. It will focus on Hinata and Naruto but there will also be other character chapters. Some without even a mention of our main heroes. Just bare with me if those chapters aren't your sort of thing.

* * *

It had been twenty minutes into their meal and Kiba still hadn't been able to comprehend exactly how this was possible. Asuma had spent every second of the meal stuffing piece after piece of meat. "Do you think he's crying because of the spices or because he's still sad over the stupid scarecrow?" Kiba whispered to Chouji who seemed to be eating just as much. Hinata couldn't help but wonder the same thing.

"Let's kill the love of your life and see how you handle it." Asuma replied as he glared at Kiba before Kurenai smacked him.

"I'm sure she'd want you to move on with your life." She said with a small huff.

"Just let me have my moment!" Asuma wailed as his tears overflowed.

The diner was quiet for a minute before people finally managed to tear their eyes away from the spectacle of a full grown ninja male crying. Suddenly however Asuma became stock still.

Hinata watched with worry as all motion ceased in both of the jounin "Wh-what is it sensei?"

Asuma quietly replied "No one move. No noise. Chouji stop eating… Just… Don't move. I hear something." The fear in his voice was almost tangible.

The genin couldn't help but wonder what could possibly cause a man of Asuma's size and rank to become so fearful so quickly. Several moments passed with no one in the group moving. Everyone at the table was as still as statues. The only movement was the slight drop of Chouji's shoulders as the meat burned.

Just as quickly as the intense fear gripped the Jounins it left. Heaving a sigh of relief Asuma spoke up "Alright, he's gone. Keep eating everyone." After a brief pause he added "For Ino-sama!" the genin resumed their meal after an angry sigh from Ino.

"HAHA! Treating your students to a meal Asuma!" a loud and youthful voice came from the ceiling.

Slamming his head down on the table so hard that several items fell to the floor Asuma replied "Hello Gai…"

As the man fell from the ceiling almost all of the genin were shocked by the sight of him. Ino couldn't get passed how dreadfully he was dressed 'Is it possible that anyone thinks that looks good?'

Shino was too busy staring at the man's pearly white smile which made his own teeth feel absolutely dirty by comparison 'I should… probably go home and brush them…'

Shikamaru and Chouji were shocked at the man's choice of arrival a shared thought went through them 'How did he stay on the ceiling?'

However when none of the present jounin spoke further Hinata decided to greet the man she had seen on numerous occasions when he walked her home to return her cousin "He-hello Gai-sensei."

The oppressive atmosphere broke almost instantly as Gai looked brightly at the genin "Oh I see! Hello my youthful Hinata! I see that you are all eating together with my good friend and his gir…" however whatever word Gai was about to speak was interrupted by another voice just as loud as Gai's.

"Gai-sensei!" turning towards the door Kiba noticed the three who literally ran into the restaurant to meet the loud jounin.

The first thing that caught Kiba's eye was the one who looked almost exactly like the jounin minus the jacket 'His son maybe? I thought they didn't let family members be on the same team…" the second one only caught his attention due to the fact that he shared the same eyes as his team-mate 'So another Hyuuga? Hm… doesn't look as nice as Hinata… Kind of looks like a good fight.' Squashing the alpha-male tendency that rose up within him he cast his glance at the third girl and his jaw nearly dropped. Something about the girl just struck him as unbelievably attractive. 'She's not even that curvy but…' and it was true. While she didn't have the curves that Kiba had endlessly dreamed of something about her confident air caught his attention. Kiba was snapped out of his thoughts by another loud shout from the green youth.

"GAI-SENSEI!" shouted the green youth as he vaulted over three tables in quick succession. "Gai-sensei! We found you!" as his team-mates caught up to him, apologizing all the way, Gai replied.

"That you did Lee; I appear to have become caught up in youthful conversation with my good friends here." The two mentioned jounin shifted uncomfortably in their seats as though they'd rather be anywhere than with this loud man "But that is not important! You won fair and square! As a reward I shall treat all three of you to lunch at this fine establishment!"

Ino noticed a sudden change in Kiba's demeanor as he looked at the brown haired girl and then down at his pocket. Before she could ask what he was looking at Kiba bounced up and shouted "You could eat with us!" the look all three jounin shot him was a dark one.

Gai's voice was quiet and threatening as he replied "Inviting another team to a meal? Trying to worm information out of them? Seeking trade secrets?" as he leaned closer and closer, Kiba could have sworn that the temperature dropped ten degrees. However just before Kurenai moved to defend her student from the suddenly hostile jounin he broke out into a smile "Just kidding!" He paused for a moment as he was wracked by laughter "Trying to learn from those older than you is a GREAT way to expand one's own youth! After all the vigor of youth is best accompanied with the wisdom of age! How youthful of you to realize this and try your best to put this lesson into practice." Kiba felt a little embarrassed as he tried to explain something to the large man but was interrupted almost before he started "Yes it even took my youthful Lee here a good two months before he learned the lesson." As they all squeezed into the table which had just enough room for all of them several demeanors changed.

Asuma and Kurenai had appeared to be enjoying their lunch prior to Gai's arrival however now they appeared to wish only to get away. They constantly shifted their glances at each other and then to Gai as though having a silent conversation.

Each of the genin other than Ino, Kiba, and Hinata were staring at the large man in green as they had never seen anyone like him and seemed to be evaluating his every move. Several times they glanced at the newly introduced Lee and seemed to ponder exactly who he was.

Hinata on the other hand seemed to be more interested Neji. While he paid her no attention she was almost constantly fidgeting and glancing at her cousin. His mere presence seemed to have driven her into anxiety. Before she had been uncomfortable but now she just appeared to be screaming for help.

Ino was watching Kiba. Something about his behavior was odd. His gaze constantly went from the brown haired girl and then to his pocket. After a while Ino realized that he looked embarrassed when he looked at his pocket. All the speculation in the world however didn't prepare her for what happened next.

"Uh… Gai-sensei?" Gai stopped eating to look at the boy "Co-could I ask you a uh… Youthful favor?" to everyone's surprise Gai became even more cheerful than he already was. Despite all the physical evidence to the contrary it appeared that Kakashi had been right in saying that Gai was the only man on the face of the earth who could never be too happy.

"But of course! I'd be happy to help with whatever you need! It is my place as a jounin after all!"

Kiba couldn't help but fidget as he blushed. 'This is so embarrassing." Taking a deep breath he starts "We-well me and my team lost a challenge and…"

Gai nodded sagely as he answered "Ah yes, me and my darling Lee often fail our challenges. However whatever the consequence is you must power through it! How else can you get stronger if you don't accept the consequences!"

This outburst caused Kiba to pause for a moment before he continued "Well uh you see the thing is that I can't… I don't have enough um... Money on me. My mom kind of cut me off because I should be making enough and uh well I wanted to ask you if…"

The Beautiful Green Beast interrupted the embarrassed genin once again however "I see where this is going." This caused Kiba to relax a bit since he wouldn't have to ask flat out "You desire training so that this doesn't happen again!" Kiba nearly fell out of his seat at this "As an Inuzuka you rely mostly on taijutsu during a fight and knowing of my renown as a Taijutsu master you sought me out in order to learn what you could right?" Gai smiled brightly nearly blinding all at the table, except for Shino whose sunglasses protected him from the powerful flash of light, as he congratulated himself on his deductive reasoning.

Kiba stared with a light amount of discomfort before he responded slowly and unsurely "Uh… well… actually I just wanted a um…" Kiba mumbled for a second before he managed to say loudly "A loan! I uh… I can pay you back. I just sort of… ran out."

What happened next was something that Asuma knew he would tell his grand-children about. The infamous Miato Gai, self-proclaimed Beautiful Green Beast of Konoha and Youthful Jounin Extraordinaire, was rendered speechless. No sound at all escaped from his lips. He simply sat still as a statue as he pondered the request. Eventually however he recovered. "Oh well…" rubbing the back of his head sheepishly he continued "I see. Well that's one of the follies of youth, I suppose, to do such foolish things. Being youthful has its positives and negatives after all." Just as swiftly as Gai's fire had extinguished it rekindled at an even brighter intensity "YES! I will help you!" Standing up so swiftly that he knocked a chair over causing some unfortunate bystander to nearly trip he proceeded to say "HOWEVER you must do something for me. I cannot, in good conscience, allow you to make another mistake like this. In exchange for my financial aid you must help me with something!"

Kiba immediately perked up at this and despite Asuma's frantic gestures of warning he said "Of course!" Kiba's enthusiasm stemmed from the fact that he felt horrible about asking for a loan. The Inuzuka clan valued earning your wage. It was a rare occurrence that any Inuzuka would lower themselves to begging. Words were unable to express how great Kiba's satisfaction for this opportunity to earn the loan was.

"Very well! You shall train with me and my team for one week! If at the end of it you pass my expectations you shall be free to go! However if you do not meet my expectations you will have to go through another week of training. Is that a deal my youthful charge?"

Glancing at the other members of Gai's team Kiba noted how enthusiastic Lee looked at the prospect of another team member. The Hyuuga whose name he couldn't quite remember didn't look at all interested. Finally resting his gaze on the cute girl, who wore a small smile as she continued her meal, Kiba decided to show her that while he may not be perfect he'd do whatever it took to rectify his mistakes. "I… Hold on a second. Hey Kurenai-sensei can I…?"

Kurenai anticipated this question and answered swiftly "It's not my call. As long as it doesn't interfere with group training or missions I can't really tell you what to do."

Asuma nearly exploded as his threw his hands in the air "Woman you have DOOMED that kid!"

Most of those assembled just chalked the outburst down to Asuma's tendency to over-act.

"Well I should probably mention that you wouldn't be training with me full time. It'd be a true shame if I tried to steal you from your own precious teacher. After all I can't begin to imagine what would happen if someone tried to steal my precious Lee from me." With tears in his eyes Gai nearly wept at the thought.

"Gai-sensei…" Lee felt tears coming to his eyes as he basked in the love that Gai obviously held for him.

"Lee!" came the manly response from the still crying Gai as he stood to meet his precious student in a fatherly embrace.

"Gai-sensei!" Lee mirrored Gai's movements a way that only he could. Leaping to his feet the two embraced as a shower of color and love imposed an image of a sun setting over a scenic beach in the diner.

"Wha-? How?" Chouji couldn't help but stop eating to stare at the beautiful sunset framing the two hugging men. Briefly tearing his eyes from the spectacle he saw that everyone save the brown-haired girl and the Hyuuga had their eyes glued on the scene as well.

"How what?" Was the brown haired girl's reply.

"The-the sunset…" Came Chouji's weak response. His senses had to be deceiving him.

"What now?"

"You don't see it?" Asked Kurenai who was genuinely surprised.

"Oh!" Tenten's features suddenly showed recognition "That thing. Yeah, you just learn to accept it after a while. I've asked… Hell I've been tempted to try hugging Gai-sensei to see if it works with me but… Just no."

"S-so th-this happens ev-every t-time they h-hug?" Hinata broke from her long silence as her curiosity over-powered her fear of her cousin.

"What happens every time we hug?" Lee asked as he broke away from his sensei. Both had taken notice of the murmurs from the others at the table and finally decided to see what was happening.

"The sunset…" Asuma was beside himself at what he had just witnessed. In all his years he had never seen anything like it. Of every single jutsu and grand sight he had seen this one particular sunset had to be the oddest.

Lee and Gai gave Asuma little heed as they proceeded to search the restaurant for the phenomenon that everyone else appeared to have seen.

With everyone else appearing confused at the reaction of the two green ninja Tenten decided to fill them in "Don't bother. They don't seem to ever notice it." After a brief pause she chuckled and added "I guess it's the" standing in a mock pose she shouted "POWER OF YOUTH!" sitting back down she looked at the shocked faces of the others who were assembled "I think it's a genjutsu seal or something myself."

"Genjutsu or not it's beautiful." Replied a nearly shell-shocked Ino. When confronted with the surprised gaze of her team-mates she added "The um… sunset… not the hugging."

Tenten scoffed lightly "Well yeah I guess it's beautiful or whatever… But it gets old quickly."

Hinata once again piped up to ask "Th-they do that a lot?"

"Oh yeah. EVERY SINGLE TIME Lee does something even remotely youthful. I don't think he'd ever try that with me or Neji…"

Kiba, tired of being shunted out of the conversation, decided to try for a joke "I sense jealousy." Immediately after he said it he wanted to smack himself 'That was dreadful! What's wrong with me? Okay try again…'

Tenten however lit up at the suggestion "N-no! O-okay well… maybe the encouragement… Not the hugging! But you know it'd be nice if he'd say 'Good job Tenten. Way to go Tenten.' But NO it's all about Lee!" Tenten's voice started to rise in volume as she continued "I mean I get that he's working hard to get over Lee's inability to do jutsu but come on! Does every second have to be given to Lee? I mean I work hard! I exist! I don't use jutsu either! But no it's all about Lee! 'Oh Gai-sensei I train constantly just like you said!'" her mockery of Lee's tone was quickly followed by a more gruff Gai impersonation "'Oh good job Lee! You're so much existent than Neji!' 'What about Tenten Gai-sensei?' 'Oh forget her Lee! I've got YOU! You're all the TEAM I NEED!'" At this point most patrons of the restaurant were looking at the shouting kunoichi with varying degrees of fear. "WELL YOU KNOW WHATGAI-SENSEI! I EXIST! I'M PART OF THE TEAM TOO! IF YOU'D STOP PLAYING FAVORITES EVERY FUCKING DAY AND HELP ME A LITTLE I'D BECOME BETTER FASTER! STOP LEAVING ME WITH THAT PRICK OF A TEAM-MATE TO GET BELITTLED EVERY TIME HE DEFLECTS MY SHOT! I'M A PERSON TOO GOD-DAMNIT GAI-SENSEI!" breathing heavily as her rant ended Tenten realized that she had been standing. Sitting down a while she looked back at Kiba as though nothing happened "So yeah… Maybe I'm a little jealous. I guess." She finished with a shrug.

The silence that followed was one of the most uncomfortable that anyone at the table had ever experienced. Each tried to think of something to break the void of noise that had enveloped the restaurant after Tenten's tirade. The first however was the least expected "Ha-have yo-you considered… um… Asking him about this?" was Hinata's meek suggestion as she played with her fingers. Almost like a breath of air the restaurant finally resumed its business.

"I'd love too except that he thinks that giving Lee everything is more important than giving me and Neji instruction. He just says 'Alright team we'll work in pairs today.' Every day too. It's ALWAYS been pairs…"

"That doesn't sound too bad…" Shino spoke up, for once, without thinking.

"Oh yeah it doesn't sound too bad. Except that the pairs are always Neji and Me with Gai and Lee off on their own. I mean I get it that my style isn't the exactly the same as hit… But I need a little bit more than just a moving target to get better. Which is really all Neji is for me at this point."

Kiba saw his opportunity to perhaps help this lovely young girl as he speaks up "Well how about you ask your parent to help you? My mom helps me out with this stuff a lot."

Tenten just smiled sadly "I would but my parents wouldn't be much help."

"Are they civilians?"

"No, they're dead. I grew up in an orphanage."

Chouji had finally finished eating and decided to put in his opinion on the matter "Well maybe your sensei just forgets that he had other people to train than just his son? I mean, my dad did that with me when he was supposed to be training my cousin. After my mom and her sister brought it up he spent time more evenly."

"Lee isn't his son." Looking at the disbelieving looks from everyone present she added with a laugh "Yeah I know right? They look so similar most react that way when they find out. I always knew though. Me and Lee grew up in the same orphanage… Hell we were best friends back when… Where are our senseis?"

Looking around the assembled genin finally realized that every jounin seemed to have vacated the premise. "They left several moments ago while we were discussing alternates for our friend here. Your sensei left just prior to your outburst. The Hyuuga, Neji I believe, left with your sensei."

"Oh…" Standing up and feeling a little embarrassed for not noticing she placed money on the table "Well I should probably duck out. Have fun you guys. Hope I see you again too." Turning towards Kiba she added "Oh and I'll see you at practice." Wearing a small smirk she added "Don't make any plans after training."

Watching the girl leave Kiba couldn't help but feel worried about the way she said it. 'I wonder what she means by…' his thoughts however were interrupted by an angry slap to the back of his head.

"Stop staring at her ass you pervert!" Ino nearly shouted.

The accusation was so unexpected that Kiba was unable to do anything but stutter for a moment. After he finally collected himself he shouted "I wasn't! Just… Something she said worried me…"

"We-well fr-from what I've heard fr-from Neji he's a… v-v-very dedicated uh worker."

Shikamaru yawned loudly at this point "Yeah well his whole tirades gotten me tired… I guess we should find Asuma-sensei. I think it's time we leave don't you Chouji?"

"What do you… Oh!" Catching the look Shikamaru gave her she immediately changed her tune "Yeah let's go. It's been a blast guys."

"Ahem…" the small cough from Shino caught all three of their attentions "You are forgetting something I believe." Gesturing to some money he had laid on the table.

"Troublesome… Alright let's pay Ino."

"What about Chouji?"

"Over there." Shikamaru pointed to some money sticking out from underneath some spices.

Shino contributed the money from Ino and Shikamaru to the pile before doing the same with Chouji's. When Asuma's genin finally left Shino turned to the others to ask "Are we ready to go find Kurenai-sensei?"

"Well… I kind of need to wait for Gai to come back… He didn't give me the money yet." Came Kiba's embarrassed response "Besides I need to find out when training is… I'll catch up with you guys later okay?"

"Very well." Was Shino's only reply as he went to leave shortly followed by Hinata.

Just before she left the booth however Hinata turned to say "Good luck."

For the second time that day and innocent phrase gave Kiba the idea that maybe he made a mistake in asking Gai for help.

* * *

A/N: Happy Valentine's Day kiddos… Even though "I" don't like the holiday I know some of you do. Well… Here's February's update. Hope you enjoyed it. Also if you find any mistakes please tell me. I looked for them but I get the feeling that I missed some.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7 "Sorry it's late"

A/N: Alright, so I'm thinking I'll probably get a little bit of anger for this but let me state something which I may have stated before: This is a story about how the WORLD changes because of Naruto's bloodline. While Naruto and Hinata are the mains, certain things will change that will eventually result in radical changes to some characters. As such there will be several chapters like this one, where our beloved heroes step out of the spotlight so that others may progress as well. Hope this doesn't bother too many people. Without further stalling, let's get underway.

* * *

The heat of the fire had nearly died by the time Naruto decided to ask a question that had been on his mind. Making several hand signs followed by biting his thumb he mutters "Kuchiyose no Jutsu."

As the smoke cleared Naruto's excitement swiftly changed into annoyance "Oh it's you again."

"Oh… It's you again." Came the slow sarcastic reply from the dog sized slug. "So nice to know that I showed up to be yelled at."

"No offence, it's just that I was kind of hoping to see someone new."

"Well you have me until your request is approved."

"What request?"

"Your request to be allowed to count on Slugs for assistance, Katsuya-sama has not decided to help or not at this time."

Naruto nodded examining the slug in the darkness. Nearly instantly a small problem occurred to him with the slug's body in terms of fighting. Very quickly he realized that this was a major flaw "How are you supposed to fight? You have no arms or legs…"

"Very observant." The slug said after a short pause. "To answer your question the majority of slugs you will be able to summon will not fight using such barbaric means as crushing or striking."

"So how would you be able to hurt anyone?"

"You are joking with my correct?"

"Well how else would you be able to hurt someone without hitting them?"

"I gather that either you are very stupid or very coy. Either way I am not impressed. Never the less we slugs can be quite useful in combat. Our…" Here the slug paused for a moment "The closest word for you humans would be slime. Mostly useful for medical purposes or stealth."

Naruto nodded finding the slugs words somewhat interesting although not truly relevant to what he asked "What's your name?"

"If you are going to interrupt my explanations with more questions I will refuse to answer further ones. Osoi… My name is Osoi. As I was saying there are several slug coalitions. Each of which possesses a different slime. Acid, poison, paralysis, and others. I come from a coalition that is known for paralyzing slime. A friend of mine has poison. I suppose the best way to tell you would be that it is similar to human chakra. While you can have multiple types it is hard to learn and only one has ever mastered all of them."

"Who is that?"

With a reverent tone Osoi said "Katsuya-sama."

"Well… this all seems nice and such but I'm not really a poisoner… I'm more of a fair fighter." A sudden raspy sound emanated from a nearby source but it was so faint that Naruto couldn't pin point its location. Immediately on guard he scanned his environment for the possible threat. Finally it subsided.

"Sorry. I have rarely heard something so… naïve."

"So what?"

"Naruto, fighting fair is not what a ninja does. These conflicts that you have and will become entangled in are not academy spars. People will die. You have to use every advantage available to you. Although judging from this conversation maybe you aren't ready for the finesse a slug summon requires. I would maybe suggest training more with another summon as well as us slugs. After all your abilities allow for multiple summons. Make use of that." With that Osoi disappeared in a puff of smoke to realms unknown.

It was long after Kakashi relieved him of his duty that Naruto decided on a course of action "I'm going to try the next one on the scroll… Snakes. I'm going to try Snakes."

"Ugh…" The steady thud of Kiba smacking his head on the table could barely be heard over the rabble of the dinner crown within the restaurant. _'Four hours… He waited to show up for four hours.' _ Was the mind that ran through the young Inuzuka's mind as he continued to wait for the ever-green sensei, Miato Gai. Finally bringing his head to a rest Kiba gave his partner a small look of distress "Do you think he forgot about us buddy? I REALLY can't afford for him to wait all year for this."

"Sir, you can't keep your dog on the table." A rather plain female employee said as she approached the duo of shinobi and dog.

"Really? Why not? You guys haven't made a fuss about it until now."

Her eyes flicking to the forehead protector Kiba wore she immediately stopped advancing as her face paled "Oh uh… Sorry I didn't know you were a ninja. I'm new here and I just started and I'm sorry please don't do any weird ninja things to me."

"Weird ninja things? Look you don't have to worry it was an honest mistake. Besides, we don't really do that here. You from another village?"

"Uh well yeah… Is he your partner? I haven't really seen many animals helping people around here."

Unable to resist Kiba found the words came to him swiftly "Well he's my partner for being a shinobi. But there's always room for a beautiful woman like you by my side."

The woman immediately smiled lightly at the comment "Well I may have to take you up on that one day. Are you two ready to pay yet? It looks like you're done and…"

"Oh uh…" It was Kiba's turn to pale "We're just cleaning up the scraps. We'll call you over when we're done."

"Alright thank you sir."

As she left Kiba turned to face Akamaru who was giving him the oddest stare. "What?"

Akamaru continued his stare and lightly growled.

"The one I JUST met? Tenten?"

This time Akamaru gave out a questioning whine.

"Akamaru I JUST met her. I'm not really tied down yet. Besides, it was just a little harmless flirting. Just one line in fact. No harm in that right?"

A slightly more aggressive growl came from the small dog. This one carried a hint of disappointment.

"Yeah well Tenten won't know okay? It was one time. Don't jud-" the jingle of a bag of coins landing on the table distracted Kiba from the conversation.

Staring at the coins prevented Kiba from seeing what happened next but the sound was enough to give him warning "Dainamikku Entorii!" the level of the shout told Kiba that it was an attack and that he needed to duck. Shortly after he heard a crash and shout of "My stand!"

Gazing out of the window Kiba saw a green covered arm sticking out from the glittering remains of a jewelry stand. "The hell?" Kiba exclaimed when the pile began to move to reveal Lee.

"I am sorry my new team-mate but I had to make sure you were prepared for Gai-sensei's training!"

Still dumb-founded Kiba asked aloud "What?"

"It wouldn't do at all if you were not prepared for the training! I am happy to announce that you have passed the first of the three tests!"

"What about my stand!" The hysterical voice of the jewelry salesman rang out.

Bowing deeply Lee said "I apologize. Please take this in order to make up for the damage to the stall. Also I believe that no jewelry was harmed. There is also a large amount to make up for the lost profits for the day. I hope this is sufficient." Handing the man enough money to satisfy the damages Lee missed the exasperated look on the young Inuzuka's face.

"How can you afford that?"

"When I am not training or working on…" Lee looked a little uncomfortable "Personal projects… I am completing as many missions as possible as quickly as possible. My speed however pales in comparison to Gai-sensei's!

"Alright… But why did you attack me?"

"It was merely a test!"

"So you attacked me!"

"No, I saw if you could dodge. If I were attacking you, I hope I do not sound too bold in saying, we would not be having this conversation right now." With thumbs up and a wink Lee leapt towards the window to be able to talk to Kiba without yelling. Although if one were to ask Kiba, the volume of the green youth's voice did not change a single bit.

"I still can't believe the guy wanted to you to attack me for a test…" Kiba was indeed concerned about this turn of events. _'He seemed odd, but not so… violent.'_

Sheepishly a blushing Lee replied "Well actually… that was my idea… Gai-sensei had just showed me an amazing move! It's is called the Dainamikku Entorii!" Lee demonstrated the move by running in place and delivering a jump kick to an invisible enemy "But first you must distract them with something. Usually a kunai of sorts but I figured money would work just as well! Unfortunately you were much too intelligent to fall for that sort of trick!"

"Hm… That's actually pretty clever… Maybe he's more brilliant than I thought."

"You… doubted Gai-sensei?" The very idea seemed appalling to Lee. However he felt that it would be most un-youthful to point this out to his new team-mate "Very well Kiba… I will take you to the second test Gai-sensei has set up! It is over this way!"

"What is this one?"

"A simple training course. My team runs it twice a day at least so it shouldn't be too hard."

"I can't believe that we agreed to this! We could get killed!" Sakura's thoughts started flowing the second she set down her pack and honestly Kakashi could see where she was coming from. He had thought about this decision ever since Naruto had convinced him to continue on.

"If you didn't want danger you shouldn't have signed up for the Ninja Program little girl!" Was Tazuna's reply. Kakashi was finding that he liked this man more and more. Despite his horrible lie after he had come clean with his deception Tazuna was much more pleasant however only half of the group was lucky enough to get this treatment.

Apparently Kakashi was not the only person to notice this however as Naruto looked up from his familial scroll to say "How come you're being so nice to Sasuke-teme and Kakashi-sensei all the sudden?"

"Because unlike you two other runts they did their job and protect me. Hell all you did was cut yourself." Pausing for a moment Tazuna asked with a genuinely curious tone "Are you a cutter? I've heard of them types. That's probably not healthy… You should stop. Might let you grow a bit taller."

Deciding now was a good time to remind Tazuna of his debt Kakashi spoke up "I hate to remind you Tazuna-san, but it was only because of Naruto that we are still on this mission. As such it's up to him when we stop. So it may be a good idea not to annoy him too much."

Tazuna recoiled as though Kakashi had struck him. Although whether it was because of the content of the message or the fact that he was being talked to like a child Kakashi couldn't decide.

Glancing towards Naruto he noticed that the youth was staring into the depths of the forest nearby. Kakashi sort of relished that look. It reminded him of Obito. Optimistic and full of drive.

"Hey Kakashi-sensei?"

Snapping out of his reverie the cyclopic ninja replied "Yes Naruto?"

"Mind if I can have some time to train?"

"Hm… Well I suppose. Just stay within shouting distance." Kakashi understood Naruto's eagerness. He had spent quite some time with his new blood-line as well. Granted it was under different circumstances it still made sense.

"Why?"

"That was we'll know how good our opponents are."

"What do you mean? He's just gonna go train." Was Sakura's reply as she finally got tired of brooding in silence.

"Simple, if we hear them kill him we'll know they're talented!" Kakashi's eye formed what indicated a smile as all present seemed taken aback at his attitude.

Noticing the odd looks Kakashi chuckled a bit "I was only kidding." Looking at the understanding looks dawning on their faces he couldn't help but think _'Sort of.'_

Kiba's legs felt like they were broken and he was truly surprised that he was still able to stand. In fact he was sure that the only thing keeping him conscious was standing. Glancing at his other companions he saw that Akamaru had already passed out. However it was Lee who had surprised him the most.

Standing fully upright and taking small stocks of Kiba's injuries and physical health was Lee. He had a small notebook in which he was making small notations that Kiba was sure were negative. Eventually however, after several minutes of observation, Lee smiled and shouted "Congratulations! You did much better than I did my first time through the course! In fact I think you came close to Neji!"

Wheezing Kiba couldn't stop himself from asking "That was the training course? I almost died twice!"

"Yes! It was most youthful when you dived to protect Akamaru from the swinging logs. Diving to protect a loved one." Tears flowed from his eyes freely "So youthful.

"So… we're almost done?" finally starting to get his second wind Kiba tried standing upright but immediately regretted it as his body screamed in protest.

"Oh yes! Only one more test to complete. We'll rest here though first. Once you're ready we can go."

"Thanks…" and with that Kiba collapsed, nearly falling on Akamaru, and followed his faithful companion into oblivion.

Kiba slowly awoke as he noticed his surroundings had changed. Instead of a forest clearing he resided inside of a darkened dojo with a fifteen meter square sparring mat in the center. The entire dojo smelled of freshly cut wood and sweat. Pushing himself onto his knees he wondered briefly where Lee had run off to.

"Ah you are awake!" that answered one question "I welcome you to my personal project! My dojo!"

"You have a dojo?" Kiba asked shaking the tiredness from his mind. Gears were turning already and he had a feeling he knew where this was going.

"Oh yes! I have kept it a secret from everyone, even Gai-sensei, so that I may start testing my skills in fights that are off the record. You may be wondering why I decided to show it to you first."

"Actually I am. I could have sworn that your sensei would know by now."

"Well the reason I have allowed you to see it is…"

"…_and the third test I want you to proctor, Lee, is one of his actual combat abilities. Tracking and endurance are one thing, but I need to know where he stands on actual combat." Gai flashed me a wondrously bright smile. I promised myself on the spot that I would step up my own dental regiment in order to keep up with his own pearly teeth._

_But that wasn't the part that called this place to mind. I was going to spar with you right next to our training course however Gai-sensei's next words allowed me to realize how lucky we are, he said "Oh if only there was a place where two genin could practice in a no-holds barred fight off the record where no one would know to look for them. Perhaps if one of us had built a secret dojo somewhere. Oh well since there is no such place, to my knowledge, that exists I suppose that you'll just have to think of something else. I believe in you Lee."_

_The words flowed through me just as the knowledge of his acceptance of my abilities. I felt the joy overwhelming me! I couldn't stop myself! "Gai-sensei!"_

_His reply was to spread his arms to accept all of our combined youth! "LEE!"_

"And I shouted…"

Kiba interrupted "I think I got it… So you brought me here to test my fighting skills?"

"Yes!"

"Hm… It seems a bit odd that he worded it like that. Are you sure that he isn't aware of this place?"

"Of course! Even my sensei's masterful perception would be fooled by how well I have hidden it!"

"So how did you find this place anyway?"

"I built it in my spare time."

The sheer dedication Lee put into a hobby was amazing. If Lee seemed proud of the construction he had every right, in Kiba's opinion. The dojo was a true master-piece despite its rather bare appearance. "Wow… That's actually really impressive."

"I am glad you think so! I am honored for you to be the first person to see my dojo since its beginnings! Now shall we begin?"

"Heh! Of course! Get ready to get destroyed."

"That is the spirit! Remember not to hold anything back. On the count of three. One… Two… Th-" A sudden knock on the door interrupted the two youths. "Oh… Uh please come in!" he shouted although to Kiba he whispered "How could anyone possible find this place? I hid it deep within the forest!"

Opening the door Kiba wasn't entirely shocked to see Gai enter the building. What did surprise him was what Gai was wearing. Along with his regular green attire he was wearing large dark sunglasses that hid his eyes, a fake purple goatee, and dark red spike hair that called to mind his own.

"Oh ho my wise friends! What a find and wise dojo you have built!" Gai's voice was only slightly disguised with a small lisp added in to random words "I happened to be travelling by this area and found this fine and wise establishment, which I have never seen before, and decided that I might partake in a friendly battle with someone who possibly wears a coat. Oh ho! How wise of me, there appears to be one here right now. Perhaps I could spar with you young, but wise, man?"

"Gai-sensei… What's with the odd get-up?" Kiba asked wondering if this was just another of Gai's oddities. The 'stranger' seemed to be shocked to be called by that name but didn't panic.

With Lee giving Kiba odd glances that expressed unbound confusion he asked "Why would you call him Gai-sensei? He clearly lacks the youthful hair of my beloved sensei! No offence…"

"No offence taken, surely the bowl cut is the most youthful of hair styles!" Shouted the stranger.

"He didn't mention that it was a bowl cut…" was Kiba's reply.

"Er… I simply assumed that such a wise young man as him would emulate such a youthful sensei as… Gai you said? That is a most weird name where I come from. To answer your question my name is uh… Iga… Otaim… ANYWAY!" Clearly uncomfortable with what he was saying he continued with much more vigor into the next sentence "I would like to participate in a challenge of physical prowess! Perhaps in an off the record match within this dojo?"

"YOSH! Otaim Iga! I shall allow you to challenge my good friend Kiba! This is an off the record dojo made specifically for physical challenges and, luckily for your admittedly specific tastes, Kiba does indeed wear a coat!"

"Oh wise years abound! Such luck I have!" Kiba could already tell that Gai was patting himself on the back due to his wide smile.

"You seriously don't see it? You're kidding right?" Kiba had to ask. There was no way that Lee was serious.

"Of course I see it Kiba! The bright future of my dojo! It is blinding in its youthful glory!" Stars almost literally dancing in Lee's eyes gave Kiba all the answers he would ever need.

Sighing Kiba replied "Whatever… I should have just worked my debt off with the restaurant."

"Alright here are the rules! Only taijutsu may be used! No groin attacks! Nothing Lethal! Unfortunately, Kiba, there are no animals allowed to fight alongside a contender. When I call the end of the fight it's over or else I'll step in." At this point Kiba noticed that Lee seemed to be entirely too eager that the fight should go too far requiring his intervention.

'_These guys are really weird… Whatever… They better be worth all this trouble.'_

"I find it only fair to warn you that I am a powerful and wise opponent. So please hold nothing at all back my wise friend!" Iga boasted loudly.

"I wouldn't dream of it Iga!" Kiba boasted back, unwilling to let this jester get the best of him. _'He's not taking it seriously so he should be easy to defeat.'_

"Alright let us begin on my count." Lee shouted as he took his position to referee "Three… Two… One… FIGHT!"

Iga charged Kiba the very second the word fight had left Lee's mouth. Kiba was so shocked by the speed of the attack that he was unable to block the kick aimed at his arm. Being launched off his feet he only had time to realize that Iga was moving again to deliver a second kick which knocked Kiba two meters to the left. As he slid to a halt he thought to himself _'How did he do that? How can he be that fast? I barely even saw it! No! Lucky fluke… that's all lucky fluke.'_

Slowly getting to his feet he noticed the reason that he was able to stand unimpeded. Iga was posing. "Not many can withstand my most exquisite kicks!" Iga boasted "You must be very well trained… Akib was it?"

Not even bothering to respond to the boast Kiba lunged at Iga who not only refused to dodge but didn't even stop his pose. Colliding with Iga Kiba was shocked to realize that Iga didn't even flinch. "Good! But not good enough!" with a swift upper body movement Iga tossed Kiba nearly out of the arena.

Kiba felt a surge of panic go through him at the thought that such an odd person could be this powerful. He understood the power of a jounin due to his training with Kurenai; however Gai seemed to take this power to a new level. _'He didn't even move an inch! It's almost like he's made entirely out of muscle!' _Forcing himself to calm down he once again got to his feet to attempt another attack on Iga. This time aiming lower he tried a flying tack to Iga's knees. He realized too late how foolish this tactic was, as Iga's foot connected swiftly with his shoulder causing an explosion of pain and launching the young man back near the arena's edge.

"I-I don't know…" Hinata said turning to Shino. "I he-hear that Gai-sensei is a rough teacher. He se-seems to mean we-well but gets carried away ac-according to Ne-Neji."

Shino replied softly "I'm sure Kiba will be fine. He is not one to give up easily."

"I su-suppose you're right… Af-after all what's the worst that c-could happen?" her feelings of worry departing she returned to her training post.

"I am surprised you have lasted this long my most wise friend. Fifteen minutes is a long time to try." Gai was worried at first when Kiba nearly saw through his genius disguise that had even tricked his eternally hip rival, Kakashi, but was immediately assured of its charms when his own pupil couldn't recognize him. _'He is indeed very hot blooded. Despite his recurring failures he continues to try! I must congratulate myself on finding such a hot-blooded pupil! He's nearly as spectacular as my Lee. Now to defeat him so that he can begin his climb into even higher planes of youthfulness.'_

On the other side of the arena a struggling Kiba was having much different thoughts. _'I can't win… He's just too strong. But… He's not getting out of this without any loss. I'll show him to treat me as a joke.' _Despite his building rage he couldn't help but respect Gai's power.

Finally able to stand up Kiba smiled as a plan formed in his mind. Maybe it was the pain speaking, but he thought that maybe, just maybe, it could work.

Iga noticed the smile and was quite confused "I am very impressed by your tenaciousness! Too many people would have given up at this point. I'm sure whoever will be training you will be most impressed. You have potential but you just need to work on your taijutsu limits not to mention your-…" Iga watched as the kunai Kiba had tossed his general direction missed by several centimeters. Looking at it casually he couldn't help but think that perhaps Tenten would be able to show him proper form he continued his appraisal "Well it appears that you'd need to work on accuracy first." Turning back towards Kiba he continued to talk "I'm sure you'll impro-"

"DAINAMIKKU ENTORII!"

Time slowed down for Gai as he only had enough time for a single though _'Where did he learn that?"_

Kiba felt Gai fall off balance from the force of the blow which, combined with Gai's surprise, knocked him out of the arena, though the disguised jounin remained on his feet.

"CONGRATULATIONS! KIBA WINS! YOU'RE YOUTH IS MOST BRILLIANT KIBA!" Lee continued shouting for several moments about the brilliance of Kiba's victory while he enveloped him in a bone crushing hug. It may have been the exhaustion or pain but Kiba actually welcomed it as it allowed him to stand without expending energy.

Gai watched on from just outside the arena as his favorite student promised Kiba that they would need to spar one day as well as eternal gratitude for allowing Lee's dojo to witness such a youthful first match. _'Oh yes… I made the right choice to try to get him to join my training program. He will do well in it.'_ Clearing his throat and interrupting the two youths', rather one sided, conversation he said to them "You should probably go speak to this "Gai-sensei" of yours pretty soon. I'm sure he'd love to speak with you." Rubbing his face where Kiba's foot-mark remained imprinted on his face he said on last thing before exiting. "I bet he's a most youthful man. If only I were lucky enough to train with such a youthful and handsome and dedicated and hot-blooded man."

Naruto laid aside his family scroll as he had read the entire section about snakes to ponder what he had read. "So… They're much better for combat eh? Sounds like my kind of summon! Anything else look important?" giving the scroll one last look-over he decided that he knew everything he needed Naruto ran through a few dry runs of the hand seals before pumping chakra into it.

Through the plume of smoke a voice asked "Orochimaru-sssama?"

'_Just like the slug and Tsunami.' _Naruto laughed before responding "Afraid not. I'm Naruto and I'm gonna be the next hokage!" The angry rustling seemed to indicate that maybe boasting right off the bat was a bad idea.

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A/N: Sorry this chapter was a bit late. Thought I had another day to do stuff. Don't worry, this counts as last month's update and I will post something this month. Maybe on this story maybe not. For those of you who are annoyed at the focus of things in Konoha [as I said it's about the world but it is NARUTO as well] don't worry! The entire next chapter focuses mainly on our beloved Team 7.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 "Should I just stop naming chapters?"

A/N: Well that cliff-hanger got people guessing. They showed interest! They showed just how beautiful they all are [you handsome devils and beautiful angels who read my story are just so great] so I decided to be a dear and upload a chapter THIS very month. So let's all kick back, relax, open up a good fan fiction and read on. Without further delay, let us continue with the story.

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As the smoke cleared Naruto got a clearer look at his possible assailant. The snake was nearly up to his chest while it sat in its coiled position. Its grey body slowly uncoiling as it approached Naruto. Its single remaining eye was currently fixed on Naruto in what could only be called a sneer.

"Fool… I don't have time for your foolishness. Where isss Orochimaru-sssama? He hasss grown foolisssh over the yearsss. The fool has decided he can sssimply give the ssscroll over to any foolisssh fool who asssksss for it."

"Well… I don't."

The snake's slow slithering went from an annoyed movement to a frustrated one. Naruto had to start backing away to avoid letting it get to close. "Lisssten here child. I am not here to deal with you. Only Orochimaru-sssama has perissssssion to sssummon usss currently. Manda will want to hear about thisss. You tell Orochimaru-baka that he will have to anssswer for thisss." Finally stopping his advance the snake sends one last glare at Naruto before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Kakashi watched Naruto slumped along during their travel with a bit of a bemused expression on his own face. While it wasn't really within his comfort zone the similarity to Obito once again struck him. _'I didn't help Obito, but I can at least try to help Naruto.' _He thought with a sigh. While he felt honor-bound due to the blonde's similarity to Obito that didn't make the prospect of social interaction any more appealing. "Naruto."

"Huh?" Snapping to attention Naruto looked over towards his sensei. Naruto was caught off guard for two reasons. One, Kakashi had never struck him as a social butterfly. Secondly, even if he was, Naruto felt he would be closer to Sasuke than himself.

"Something's bothering you." Kakashi worked hard to keep the observational jerk tone from his voice. Years of telling people how they felt, correctly every time, had given him a bit of an ego where observation was concerned.

"Well… yeah." Naruto was once again surprised. No one ever talked to him about his feelings… Except for Hinata a few times when he was feeling really bad. He always got the feeling that she knew more than she let on. To be entirely honest he was starting to miss his friend already.

"Wanna… tell me about it?" The awkwardness, much to Kakashi's dismay, didn't dissipate like he had hoped and in fact had intensified with every second he was trying to make small talk.

"Not really. It's just… I was trying to summon snakes and it sort of worked, but it was a LOT meaner than the slugs and I'd just like to use snakes more. They seem more useful you know?"

_'Ah tactics… Now this is more my style.' _Feeling the awkwardness dissipate immediately Kakashi replied "Well you can't expect every summon to be nice. Besides snakes aren't really known for their kind demeanor."

"Well I know. I guess I was just hoping that they'd be a little… more accepting. I want something more powerful than slugs you know?"

"Well Naruto slugs can be quite powerful. In fact I know a woman who took down an entire army using just one slug. The only thing is that they're a bit trickier to figure out from what I've been told."

Sasuke, who had been eavesdropping, couldn't resist a barbed comment at this point "Well the dobe would need a more direct summon. I don't think he's smart enough to try tactics."

"Shut up teme! I can be tactful if I need to!"

"I'm sure you could." Came Sasuke's sarcastic reply.

Before Naruto could reply he felt himself shoved into the dirt by his sensei "Everyone get down!" Glancing up Naruto saw a large blade fly through the air where Tazuna's neck used to be. Hearing it thud into a nearby tree Naruto looked at the location of the noise. On the large sword there stood a proportionally tall man.

"So… Sharingan Kakashi… How did you know I was here?" The voice sounded genuinely curious as to the answer.

"You have a huge sword on your back without anything covering it. I noticed the reflected sunlight."

_'All according to plan.' _ The man though with a hidden smirk. "I guess years of nothing but strong arming civilians have rusted my skills a little. While I've always wanted to fight you… I'm feeling generous. How about a trade?"

Kakashi's visible eye narrowed "Let me guess… Our lives in exchange for Tazuna? Is that the deal you have in mind Zabuza?"

Zabuza crouched on his sword's handle to be a little closer to the group "That would be one of my offers. The other is that you take advantage of my short attention span. I sometimes get really distracted by counting money. If some were to, say, fall onto the ground over there… I could get too distracted to do anyone any harm.

Of all the reactions Naruto expected the one he knew would never happen is the one that actually did. Kakashi started laughing for a few seconds. Once he finally stopped he replied "I've hear this one before. So did the three headless corpses you left after the last time you used this trick. The survivor told quite a story. Lull us into a false sense of security, and then strike from the shadows. As is your style."

Slowly getting up Naruto began to make his way towards Zabuza however a hand from Kakashi stopped him. "This man is on a whole different level than the demon brothers. Trust me. It's best for you not to interfere."

Zabuza couldn't help but sigh 'I really as willing to walk away from this too. No one ever trusts me…' Glaring down at Kakashi he stated "Very well. Go ahead and draw out your secret weapon. I don't want this fight to be anything less than brutal." In one fluid motion he jumped down to face Kakashi and pulled his sword from the tree.

Kakashi chuckled lightly "It's obviously not too much of a secret. As my name implies…" Kakashi pulled his headband up to reveal his Sharingan eye "Everyone seems to know I have it."

As Sakura watched the battle unfold her mind going a mile a minute _'What's happening? First the old man and now sensei! How can these two old bags be so powerful! They never acted powerful before! How powerful could this Zabuza be?' _for a single instant the idea that perhaps he would be able to defeat Sasuke crossed her mind _'No! No no no! No one is a match for Sasuke… I'm sure of it but… What if he kills Kakashi-sensei? Then we're screwed… I need to hel… No, I'll just get in the way.' _Moving in front of Tazuna she continued her train of thought _'Protecting Tazuna is the mission objective. No matter what the cost is, defend Tazuna… Even Sasuke... But that won't be necessary. They don't need my help right now. We'll be fine.' _Out loud she mumbled slightly "Just protect Tazuna."

Sasuke watched the battle with drastically different thoughts on his mind. _'The Sharingan! Only a few select members of the Uchiha clan are able to use it though… Is it possible that he's an Uchiha? No… All of them were wiped out by That Man… Maybe… Maybe he is That Man in disguise.' _A blind rage started to envelop him as he drew a kunai, perfectly ready to exact his revenge at last.

"Don't worry Sasuke… I'll protect you guys even if it kills me." Kakashi's voice snapped Sasuke out of his rage.

_'Now isn't the time… even if he is That Man in disguise… I have a bigger threat right now. Zabuza first. Then I'll find out if he's That Man or not."_

"It's over!" A shouting voice snapped both genin out of their mental monologues as Zabuza appeared in their mist.

"For you!" Naruto moved to punch the large rogue ninja; however he was easily intercepted and sent flying by the larger man. As he was sent flying by the strike he tried to right himself for a landing, which would have worked, had he not hit the tree.

Zabuza, satisfied that his work with the blond runt was completed, returned his attention to the old man "Now die!" swinging his weapon towards the man's middle in a horizontal sweep he was irritated to find Kakashi had once again prevented him from completing his task.

"Zabuza, you appear to be losing your touch. Maybe you've grown soft?" Kakashi mocked struggling to keep the large sword from cleaving through his kunai and, more importantly, himself.

Naruto was struggling to maintain consciousness when the fog started rising. His back hurt. His head hurt. His everything hurt. The sounds of battle were far away. Close by? Absent. Water splashing. He was having difficulty focusing on anything. More splashing. A small poof. A small nudge. Pain coursed through his body where the other had contacted him.

"Attempting to battle with him?" A small pause "How foolisssh."

Naruto chuckled. The pain streaked through him once again. "Maybe…" a small rustle as though something were moving from land to water. Silence again. Naruto was thankful for the silence. It didn't hurt.

Zabuza looked at the captured jounin with a small smirk "Trying to escape me by going onto the water? I'm surprised that you were foolish enough to try that. There is no way you can escape my wat-agh!" A searing pain clamped down on his leg and felt as though it were pumping something into him. He tried to shake it loose, but was met with no avail. Reaching down the pressure instantly relieved itself. Thankful he turned back towards Kakashi only to be struck in the face. The wound in his leg screamed for attention. Zabuza retreated into the mist to assess the situation.

Walking onto land he lightened the fog enough to examine his wound. '_Snake bite! Damn it! This isn't good. It was probably poisonous. I can't afford to screw around for long.'_

Hearing a few steps near him Naruto looked up. The pain finally subsiding enough that he could see what was happening he saw Zabuza examining his leg. Glad to have a second chance at the bastard Naruto grinned and made his favorite hand-sign.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu!" A voice behind Zabuza caused him to turn around. Roughly twenty clones stood in a tight formation, each grinning and looking eager.

"Heh, that's impressive kid! But I've killed greater numbers of jounin than that before I had even turned thirteen! If you think the Demon of the Mist is going to be stopped by a snake bite and a few clones think again." Taking careful aim Zabuza threw his sword yet again.

As Naruto watched his entire gang get destroyed by the sword throw, he couldn't help but be thankful for the fact that he had run back to his group. He wasn't a coward, but he wasn't a total idiot. He knew that Zabuza would destroy him on his own. He had just hoped that his clones would have distracted him longer.

Tazuna was relieved to see the kid again for two reasons. One because it was another body-guard. Secondly was that he had become a little fond of the brat and didn't want to see him fight that demon. "Aigh!" Tazuna's eyes went wide as the mad-man's blade went sailing past his face, slightly cutting his ear. Unable to stand after that he collapsed into a puddle of his own urine.

Dashing towards his sword Zabuza briefly ponders how much time he has left. _'I really need to hurry. I'm getting to sloppy. Aim down and to the left.'_ Nearly at his sword he noticed a demon shuriken heading his way. Absent-mindedly jumping over it he watched as it embedded itself into a tree "Keep trying kids." A kunai was the next thing to sail in his direction. He dodged that even easier than the shuriken. "You don't get it do you! I can't be stopped by petty kunai and shuriken!" Grabbing his sword he decided a second weapon would make it easier to kill the bridge builder and run.

Reaching for the kunai he was blinded by it turning into smoke. _'What?"_ was the only thing to cross his mind before a fist connected with his jaw. Swinging blindly he felt his blade cut through both the body, which turned to smoke, and the tree. Letting out a roar of primal rage he reached for the demon shuriken. A second puff of smoke blinded him as he felt a foot to his torso. Punching the insolent clone into oblivion he let another roar "I won't let a bunch of little bastards make a fool of me! EVERYONE DIES! I DON'T CARE IF THE BRIDGE BUILDER DIES!" Turning towards Naruto the fog started lightening even more as Zabuza fought to control himself due to his rage and the venom in his veins "YOU!" pointing towards Naruto he continued "YOU ARE THE TARGET! PREPARE-"

Zabuza was once again struck, this time in the back by an expert kick from Kakashi "Forget about me?" Zabuza's form was quickly replaced by a log. Hearing a loud splash on the water everyone turned to face the enraged demon.

"NO MORE SCREWING AROUND!" laughing loudly he continued "I'll take you all out at once!" running through hand seals as fast as possible he continued laughing.

Dashing to the water copying each signal Zabuza used Kakashi noticed that he had seen this jutsu before _'But why is he going through the signs so slowly.' _Unwilling to look the gift-horse in the mouth Kakashi used his prior knowledge to complete the technique first "Daibakufu no Jutsu!"

Zabuza's eyes widened as the wall of water enveloped him. As he slammed into the tree he was only vaguely aware of the pain. The world was swimming before his eyes. _'I guess this is it…where's Ha-…" _Instantly his world went dark.

Naruto watched as the green clad figure dropped from a nearby tree. As it walked towards Zabuza's body Naruto's questions burst forth "Who the hell do you think you are! He was ours!"

The figure examined the protruding needles before speaking "I thank you for weakening him for me. I've been tracking Momochi-san for months. I must take him away now. Thank you again." With that the figure grabbed the body and disappeared.

The entire group stared at the spot where the figure had just disappeared from for several moments before speaking. Sakura was the first to break the silence "Why were they in such a hurry sensei?"

Naruto's question followed "And what was up with the mask?"

Kakashi replaced his headband to conserve what energy he had left. "They were a hunter ninja. They… track down rogue ninja and destroy the body. It's so that the enemy ninja can't unlock the hidden secrets of the body. You'd be surprised what you can learn from a body. Stuff like what medicine the village uses. Their first date's name. I knew one guy, real miracle worker; he could tell if a corpse used to be ticklish." Finally unable to stand any longer Kakashi started to fall.

Naruto reached out to help steady him but could only reach his arm which, at least, prevented Kakashi from landing on his face.

Kakashi was appreciative of not hitting his nose on the ground. However a new form that he had just noticed heading towards the group worried him. "Naruto, a friend of yours?"

"Oh crap it's you! Yeah, I summoned that earlier and…"

"Quiet. Thisss isss all very foolisssh… However Lord Manda requiresss and audienccce."

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A/N: Like I said, I update on time. I hope this chapter satisfied something for all of you. I'm gonna be honest, I'm not sure how you will react at the changes in the fight. Also who was that mysterious stranger who retrieved Zabuza's body? How will Naruto's meeting with Manda go? Will I ever find anyone to answer these questions? Hope you enjoyed the story. Have a nice day.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: "More Wave Mission"

A/N: I'm starting to think I should put something along the lines of a timeframe as chapter titles. Like "3 days after Naruto Graduated" for the first one. That's not the actual time-frame in my story [yet…] but I'm thinking maybe that would be a good idea. Please tell me if you think that's a good idea or not alright? Anyway onto the story.

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Haku nearly fumbled her tools to the ground as she examined the large bite wound. Blood was beginning to slow its flow from Zabuza's body. "That's not good." She mumbled. She knew that she needed to get the poison out and the easiest way was to let the blood flow out. As she moved to reopen the wound however Zabuza's hand stopped her.

"I'll do it…"

For the first time outside of a training session Haku knocked Zabuza's hand away. "You're in no condition. You can barely see straight." Haku went back to her work "Unless of course you are talking to that tree."

Zabuza managed to pull an angry expression but allowed Haku to do her work unimpeded. As he stared into the trees a thought crossed his mind. "Why did you go after me? Why not kill the kids and the old man?"

Haku chuckled at her master's single mindedness towards his goal but replied with a worried tone "Because you almost died Momochi-san. I live only to serve you… If you are killed…" Haku shook her head to get the image from her mind "If that happened what would I do?" a brief pause proceeded her next statement "Besides, I saw the snake. It was a variety that lives nearby so I knew I could save you if I slowed your heart-beat." Haku worked diligently in silence for a few moments before a relieved sigh escaped her lips "That should do it. Now we just need to put you to bed rest and a few medicinal herbs and you should be fine."

"That doesn't explain why you let them live." Zabuza's voice was rough with accusation and disappointment.

Haku lifted Zabuza as she pondered what to say. "You know I don't like killing. You never gave me orders to kill. Your exact words were to act as backup in whatever way I saw fit. So I saved you. As for why I aimed for the neck I knew that if I didn't they may not have believed you were dead and might have taken matters into their own hands. You know what they say about Sharingan Kakashi's abilities of observation… Plus I may not have been able to save you if we had waited too much longer. A battle with him would have put your life in more danger. I can't afford to lose you Momochi-san."

"Whatever… Next time…" Zabuza's body stiffened with pain when he continued it was much slower and with more ragged breath "Next time he won't live. I'll show all of those bastards what happens when you mess with the devil!"

The Konoha ninja couldn't help but stare at the large snake before them. As expected it was Naruto who replied first "Look… I just about got killed. I don't want to deal with Manda or whoever right now okay? I'll-"Naruto was cut off however when the snake knocked Kakashi out of his grasp and started to coil around. Almost before Naruto could comprehend what was happening the snake started constricting.

"Perhapsss I wasss unclear foolisssh boy. When Lord Manda requessstsss and audience you do not turn him down. But perhapsss this misssunderssstanding is all my fault hm? Maybe I misssheard what you sssaid? Perhapsss you would like to repeat yourssself ssso asss to avoid an unfortunate accccident?"

"I-I said that even though I'm tired I'd like nothing more than to talk to Lord Manda!" Naruto grunted out the sentence through the pain and almost as soon as he had finished saying it the pressure exerted by the snake was released. Naruto fell to the ground grasping for air right beside Kakashi, who was struggling to even move to check Naruto for injury.

Turning towards the rest of the terrified humans the large snake stated "Now foolisssh humansss may take your sssensei and continue on your way. Either your friend will catch up or he won't. Either way thisss won't take long… NOW!" with one last terrified glance towards the snake Sakura stepped forward to attempt to lift her sensei however her struggles were cut short by Tazuna.

As they walked away Sakura couldn't help glancing back at Naruto and the snake. "Don't worry little girl. That kid should be fine. Obviously the snake doesn't want him dead. Probably just a contractual talk or something. I have them all the time. They're nothing to worry about." Tazuna glanced at Kakashi who was just barely hanging onto consciousness "Think you'll be able to handle everything Sasuke?"

"I am an Uchiha. I can handle anything that comes our way."

"Yeah! Sasuke-kun can do it."

"Alright."

Naruto watched as his travelling companions disappeared into the distance. 'They shouldn't get too far away.' Looking over at his apparently aggravated summon Naruto asked "So what do I have to do to talk to Manda?"

"I will assist you with a summoning jutsu. Just follow my lead. He will take my place in this plane of existence."

"Okay." The snake walked him through the signs several times before it decided that he was ready. On the final run Naruto shouted "**Shinsei Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"**

Just before the snake exited that plane of existence he thought 'That's an odd incantation…'

Naruto nearly choked on the large plume of smoke that covered the entire clearing. Even behind the cloud he could sense a dark presence. As the smoke cleared all he saw was a large wall of purple scales which had a large band of black going over the twenty foot wall. 'Damn it! It was a trap! That son of a bitch! When I get my hands on him I'll tear him apart!' looking around the fifty foot clearing for any sort of escape he was shocked to see a large nearly triangular cover start to appear over the wall. 'Now they're sealing me in!' the panic quickly turned to fear as the cover rotated downward revealing a large snakes head.

"Guh…snuh…uh…." Naruto fell to his knees as he stared up at the behemoth which encircled him. It slowly occurred to him that the wall was in actuality a large snake.

"I am glad to see that Orochimaru taught you manners. You may rise." The creature communicated without moving its mouth. However Naruto knew it wasn't speaking to his mind.

Slowly obeying the creature Naruto finally began to recover from the shock.

"I do not sense Orochimaru however… In fact you do not seem familiar at all. Just who are you?"

"I'm…" hesitating just a moment before his courage returned full force "I'm Uzumaki Naruto! I'm gonna be the hokage!" Before Naruto could continue the snakes head plummeted and smashed a hole directly in front of Naruto knocking him off his feet.

"Insolent welt! I asked you very specifically who you are! Not who you think you'll become! Answer me with only the truth!" the anger in the creatures voice was obvious and struck another chord of fear within the young blond.

"I am Uzumaki Naruto."

The large snake interrupted "I already knew that."

Naruto fought down a surge of annoyance as he continued "I am currently a genin of Konohagakaru."

The snake once again moved. However this was a much gentler movement as it carefully positioned itself to look at Naruto as closely as possible. The smell of dead flesh hung upon its every breath. "Konohagakaru? Do you know of Orochimaru?"

Even the snakes proximity couldn't stop Naruto's annoyance from erupting in a sarcastic retort "I'm sorry, do you want me to answer your first question or are you gonna keep stopping me? Cause at this rate we won't get anywhere now will we?"

The snake seemed unperturbed by this outburst as he replied "Hm… You have a point. My time is valuable. Continue."

Naruto sighed inwardly as he realized just how lucky he had been that the large snake wasn't angered by his outburst. "Well… Uh… The only other thing that's important is that I plan on becoming the Hokage."

This last one seemed to please the snake as when it's voice reappeared it was no longer angered and had an almost purr to its tone. "Ah a minion with ambition! So few seek great things in this life. Ah yes… You could certainly go places with my help. Just treat my kind well and you can have a powerful ally at your disposal. I, Lord Manda, approve of your signing of our contract. I accept your alliance proposal. Now, as for payment, where is my sacrifice? Ah never mind I smell the blood. I love a good search." uncoiling from around Naruto' position Manda searched the clearing visually, as the smell of blood was everywhere. "The sacrifice you brought me fought hard didn't he? His blood is everywhere. But he was subdued in the water. Hm, another scent? For one so young to have captured not one but two… three! Three sacrifices at your age? Your sent is everywhere too. I am impressed! You seem to have done the work of twenty! One only bled at this location however but … hm…" Manda's excitement plummeted and gave rise to a bit of anger "One went a different direction than the other two. You allowed one to escape? It was one of the more injured ones too! But the… The other two escaped as well! I can smell their movement from here. Bah…"

Naruto felt now was a good time to ask a question that had been plaguing him for a while "What sacrifices?"

"What sacrifice! Obviously the sacrifice that will allow you to summon my brethren in battle! You do not get something for nothing minion! Now come we…"

"What scroll?"

An angered hiss emanated from Manda's throat as his tail lashed forward to destroy a large tree near Naruto "What scroll! I will not allow this! I warn you only once! I do not allow those who break deals to live! So stop your feigned ignorance before I become angry!"

"I don't know what-"Naruto stopped speaking as he was forced to dodge Manda's tail which had impaled the ground he was just standing on.

Manda looked at Naruto almost appraisingly. A mere second later the large snake moved to crush Naruto with the underside of his chin.

Naruto once again barely managed to dodge the attack 'I need to get out of here! I can't kill this thing!' Turning to run he sprinted as fast as he could but a large scaly wall stopped him.

Lowering his face to look at Naruto more directly, slowly to savor the fear on his prey's face Manda purred at Naruto "Where are you going little rat? We're just starting to have fun. No need to run and get more food is there? Do not worry. Your companions did nothing to offend me. They will be fine. Now… We have unfinished business."

Manda flicked his tongue once again, this time however it slammed into Naruto knocking him into the part of his body preventing Naruto's escape. "Now stand prey. Make this interesting!"

Naruto scrambled to his feet as quickly as he could. Just barely ducking under a deliberately slow tail swipe from Manda.

As Manda continued to screw with his prey he could not resist taunting his prey "Little little rat, why did you not just bring the sacrifice?" ignoring the little vermin's protest Manda continued "You could have been a valuable servant." The vermin's kunai were no use versus Lord Manda's steel-like scales "You should not have signed the scroll if you weren't going to fulfill your obligations." False clones were no use. An easy thing to fix. Encircle and tongue sweep them until one stays. "I grow tired of this easy chase." Pinning the remaining creature with his tongue Manda "You show less talent than I THAAGH!" withdrawing his tongue swiftly from the biting pain he examined a small knife protruding from it.

"Ha! A rat with some bite! This is more like it!"

"I don't know what scroll you keep talking about! The one I have doesn't say anything about sacrifices! It's not my fault!"

This snapped something within Manda. No more fooling around. Swinging his tail at full speed he launched the lying rat into the air and then slammed it down just hard enough to break a bone. Moving closer to view the injured creature he was pleased to see that he wasn't dead yet "If there is one thing I cannot stand, little rat, it is a weasel! Stop feigning ignorance!" pressing harder he continued "Just admit your wrong doing! Nothing can save you now, but I am not without mercy. Stop trying to deceive me. You will die much faster."

"I don't know what you're talking about…" the nerve of the vermin. Claiming innocence until the end.

"Very well. You will die slowly then but not before you see the blemish you left on my pristine contract expunged. Your soul will follow your signature not much later. I hope you enjoy dissolving.

Wiggling his tongue around in his mouth he found what he was searching for. Retrieving the scroll from a recess inside of his mouth he placed it directly next to the squirming vermin. "Uzumaki Naruto. The most recent signer." Unrolling the scroll Manda searched for the name. "Here it is… Is not?" Where is it! It should be directly after Kabuto! Where is it! Did you sign at the front!" searching through the entire list twice he still found no mention of his current captive.

"Where is it!" Manda's voice rumbled "What did you do! Where is your signature!"

The prey had the nerve to chuckle "I already told you… I didn't sign it." It coughed up a small amount of blood from an increase of pressure.

"Quiet! I must think about this."

After what seemed like an eternity the Lord of Summoned Snakes inquired "If you did not sign the contract how are you able to summon me and my brethren?" relieving some pressure on the small genin to allow for easier speaking he moved his great eye closer to watch for signs of trickery.

"My bloodline." Coughing as he tried to force more air into his lungs to make up for the lack of it moments earlier. The broken arm was already feeling like it was healing a bit. Once his breathing started returning to normal he continued "It lets me summon any creature."

Manda stared into the great blue sky. He was always fond of the great splotches of white. They calmed him. Several moments later he removed his tail entirely from Naruto and looked the genin in the eye as well as he could. "You fought hard despite your lack of strength against my own. You are determined. Furthermore you have an ability that will serve me well in the future. I will allow your misery to be sacrifice enough."

Naruto slowly stood feeling his arm knit back together slowly. He always felt sorry for people who had to wait long periods of time before healing.

The silence stretched on for a few moments before Manda stated "You are being allowed to summon me and my kin without sacrifice. This is the first time that this has ever happened. You do not seem to be aware of how much of a benefit this is to you."

"You broke my arm and basically tortured me. Forgive me if I don't seem too happy."

"Bah, hatchlings are never appreciative. Never-the-less of your usefulness you WILL learn to respect me. You are one of many minions. When the time comes I will find a proper way for you to make up for your lack of respect. For now however you are dismissed. Two of the injured are awaiting your return. A few of my kind are detaining them. When I leave they will be released. Be prepared for one of my retainers to contact you with your further payment or any assignments. When you return to your lair make sure to summon one into the room so I will be aware what size will be most appropriate. Be assured that the lair is well kept. Diplomats will not be happy if you slack off. Now keep alive. I'd hate to lose someone so useful." With this final order a gigantic plume of smoke clogged the clearing.

"Well isn't that great…" nearly dropping from exhaustion Naruto smirked "Maybe snakes are more trouble than they're worth?"

He didn't get much farther in his line of thought as his team came running. Kakashi was barely moving on his own power. When he saw that Naruto was fine he collapsed onto the nearby Tazuna. "Naruto… Are you okay? Sorry but snakes constrained us."

"Yeah I'm fine Kakashi-sensei! It was just a misunderstanding."

"Sorry Naruto we tried to come help we really did! We rushed once we heard the explosions…"

"Sakura-chan I'm fine… Just… Tired." Looking towards his sensei he asked "So if Tazuna has him… who has me?" with those final words Naruto collapsed.

In the great swirling nether of Manda's lair he pondered his most recent acquisition. "Hebi Ichi-Ni-San what are your thoughts on this?" turning towards his right hand snake he watched as the large bronze three headed snake pondered.

"I feel that we should keep him. We can use him to our advantage on the other summons." The first head stated.

"I don't really care honestly. But if he becomes useless I would like to eat him." The second head replied.

"Shut up you two. Lord Manda already knows this Ichi, and Ni you always want to eat. My Lord I think that we should use him to gain more holding with the Slug clan. The toad clan has been gathering its power for quite a while. Unfortunately their minion Jiraiya is much more powerful and helpful than we had hoped. Perhaps we should request that Orochimaru assists in training your new minion?" the other two heads were quick to voice their consent to this plan.

"No. Orochimaru doesn't need to know about this new minion. He is just as likely to kill him as train him. His pursuit of knowledge is admirable however he seeks it too eagerly. He breaks all of his subjects unnecessarily. He will NOT be informed about this. The newest minion is too valuable to waste. Where is Kagehebimaru?"

The first head replied "He was killed by Orochimaru during an experiment."

"Bah!" rage surged through Manda "Has he paid for this foolishness!"

The second head responded "He paid with fifty sacrifices. He said that five times the usual should more than make up for his transgression seeing as how Kagehebimaru was important to you."

"I will give him this, he certainly follows protocol well. However I tire of his foolish waste more quickly each day. Take me to the sacrifices. Hopefully my new minion is more trust-worthy than this fool."

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A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I tried to show that Naruto knew he couldn't win the fight. If I failed at this please tell me. See you soon kiddos!


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

A/N: Nothing to really report this time… Stop the blood purges of good fiction please? A better thing to do would be to add an actual "rating" system. Like 1-10 so that people can find GOOD fiction as opposed to what you're doing now. Which is getting rid of good fiction for absolutely no reason. Just my thought on Fanfiction's thingy going on right now. Hope I'm not too late to talk about that.

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"Come on Sakura! Let's see what's under his mask. What's the worst that could happen?" Sasuke glanced over towards his team-mates who were huddled in the corner next to their possible sensei. Their non-sense gave him reprieve from his own racing mind.

"It's his personal privacy. Besides what if he wakes up and gets mad at us?" Sasuke knew she was merely offering excuses. She was close to breaking.

"He's too weak from the Sharingan. Besides even if he gets mad what would he do? He'd get over it before the week is up. You remember what he said right?"

Sakura was obviously fighting with temptation "No… It's probably… not worth it."

Naruto seemed crest-fallen before turning towards Sasuke "What about you teme? You wanna see?"

Looking out the window towards the forest surrounding the house Sasuke considered the proposal 'It could be 'him' in disguise. Either that or Kakashi has somehow managed to get his hands on a Sharingan eye… It wouldn't be that hard to do. A simple henge would have disappeared by now. There were plenty of spares lying around since then…' glancing towards Naruto, who appeared to take Sasuke's silence as a no, reaching towards Kakashi's face.

"Wait Naruto." The lack of insult immediately grabbed Naruto's attention. "I want to be the one to do it."

"What are you kids up to?" Tazuna, who had just walked in, asked.

"We're gonna see Kakashi-sensei's face." Naruto replied eagerly as Sasuke stood and moved towards the sleeping Kakashi.

"Oh." Tazuna couldn't comprehend their desire to be sneaky about it. To him it made more sense to ask. But he owed them his life so he remained silent.

"Now let's see." Sasuke had finally reached Kakashi and was now drawing a kunai from his pouch.

"Whoa whoa whoa just move it! You don't need to cut it off!" Naruto nearly shouted as Sasuke crouched towards his sensei.

"Hey there kid none of that." Tazuna stated as he started moving towards Sasuke.

"Calm down. It's just in case he thinks I'm an enemy. He's a trained Shinobi he may attack despite his frailty. It's just for safety." This seemed to calm the others as he slowly reached towards the mask. 'If it's that man I will have my revenge… If not he has a lot of explaining to do.'

Slowly Sasuke's fingers worked their way under the mask with surgical precision. With baited breath all present waited for the big reveal. Images of what lied under the mask flashed through before their eyes as they watched Sasuke finally begin to remove the obstructing cloth.

"Something's wrong!" Kakashi shot into an upright position causing all but Tazuna to leap away from his location.

"Yeah! Sasuke was trying to see under your mask and I was trying to stop him and-"Naruto rushed to his own defense drawing glares from the other two genin.

"Quiet Naruto. This is more important than your rivalry. Zabuza is alive."

The surprise of that statement went through the room like a bomb.

"Wh-why would you think that Sensei?" Sakura's voice trembled "We saw the hunter-nin put two senbon through his throat! You said so yourself that he was dead!"

Kakashi sighed as the exhaustion set back into his body "As you should know Hunter-nin destroy the body to prevent enemies from reverse engineering techniques, medicine, and names of people's love interests. Usually it is done on the spot to prevent unnecessary risk. A dead body is a surprisingly important commodity in our line of work."

Kakashi paused for a moment as a small surge of pain shot through him. Once it was over he continued "By itself this doesn't mean anything. Four enemy ninja were on-site with the body. Not to mention that one of them is well known as being highly perceptive. However then when you think about how Zabuza was finished off."

Sasuke's eyes shot open when he realized what his sensei was getting at "Acupuncture."

Naruto however was less than impressed at this revelation "So what's that?"

Sakura was the one to respond "Well basically it's a medical thing. If you put a needle through someone's body at certain spots it's supposed to make them have a lot of pain or feel less pain. I don't see… why… Oh no!"

Naruto and Tazuna watched as the other three occupants of the room seemed to bristle with an unknown secret. Eventually however even Tazuna figured it out "Wait! Se-sense… Is that even possible?"

"Putting someone in a near death state? Implausible. Especially at long range. However ninja aren't the kind to follow what's plausible and what's not."

Naruto, finally understanding, jumped in at this moment "But you said that he was dead!"

Kakashi sighed in annoyance "Naruto we just went over that. I may be wrong though. He could actually be dead. However we have evidence that suggest that the two were working together. Granted it's highly unlikely. Here's a free ninja tip though. Don't discount anything. We need to prepare just in case. Luckily we have plenty of time."

Sakura was the first to react to this "What do you mean we have time?"

"He was badly injured by my jutsu. Not to mention that snake Naruto summoned. Plus being put in a near death state isn't something you can just walk off. Even the most stubborn of ninja wouldn't be able to recover from that for… a week and a half. Knowing what I know of him it'll probably on be a week. About as long as my chakra exhaustion will last. Convenient really. But for now we're going to go out and train."

Naruto immediately perked up at this "Awesome! I can't wait!"

Kakashi chuckled at his student one track mind "Well I wouldn't get too excited. Follow me." Grabbing a pair of crutches that Tazuna's family had managed to acquire for him he stood slowly "I may not be able to move much but I can at least teach you this."

As he started moving towards the door Sakura interrupted him "What's a little training going to do! Even you were struggling with him! How are we supposed to do anything! The only reason we won last time was because he wasn't expecting that snake or whatever it was."

Kakashi struggled to a stop before replying "Usually I'd agree. Usually I'd call off this mission. However Zabuza Momochi isn't the kind to allow a loss to go unpunished. No matter what we do he won't stop until we're all dead. So we might as well protect Tazuna while we can. Secondly the fact that we DID win is an important fact. If three fresh genin can take on Zabuza and walk away with only a little bit of help from their teacher, imagine what we can do if we all co-ordinate our efforts on him."

His students seemed to agree as there were no more outbursts of disbelieve. Kakashi smiled as he led them deeper into the forest. 'They are so going to hate me for this.'

Naruto leaned on the counter rubbing his head. After falling about seventy times and acquiring what he was sure was going to be a scar Kakashi had finally decided that watching Naruto injure himself over and over wasn't going to bring anymore laughs and finally led them back to Tazuna's home.

"So you actually climbed a tree without your arms? What can't ninja do?" Tazuna was listening with marked interest as Sakura recounted the basic process and how she had made it to the top of a tree almost every time.

"Ugh this sucks." Naruto moaned as his head pounded.

"It's actually a very nifty and useful trick Naruto. In fact I'm surprised you did as well as you did. Most people don't pick up on it as quickly as you three did." Glancing at the others with a smile he noticed that Sasuke was glaring at him. Turning once more to Naruto Kakashi sighed "I think he's mad at me. Probably for the same reason you are. Sorry it's not very flashy but it's necessary."

Unbeknownst to the others in the room Sasuke's foul mood did not originate from his training but rather from his conflicting thoughts. 'Right now would be the wrong time to engage him. With Zabuza running around he's our only real defense. Assuming he even is That Man… Even if he's not a confrontation with him about my clan's property may lead him to assume it'd be easier with me out of the picture. Now isn't a good time. I've waited this long. I can wait a while longer.'

Yawning loudly and blushing because of it Sakura stated "That was fun and all but it's really hard to keep up for too long. I'm going to go to bed." After she left it was only a few moments before Sasuke followed suit silently.

Now that his rival was out of the room Naruto felt much more confident asking Kakashi what was on his mind "Hey Kakashi-sensei can I talk to you for a minute?"

Kakashi struggled to keep his eye open as he looked at his student "Sure Naruto. What's on your mind?"

"Tomorrow when you're teaching us how to walk on water, is it a lot harder to do than tree climbing?"

Kakashi looked at Naruto for a moment in a way that made the younger ninja feel like he was being evaluated. Almost as if Kakashi were taking him apart piece by piece.

"Would you like to step outside for a moment Naruto?" It wasn't a question.

"Yeah sure…" standing and following his temporarily crippled sensei Naruto imagined all sorts of punishments. Perhaps he'd be kicked out of the program. He briefly imagined his sensei using the Sharingan to trap him in a world of unending torment but quickly disregarded it as that couldn't be possible. Finally they came to a stop just as the house was about to disappear from sight.

"So… You actually want to know how to do that?" Naruto was caught off guard by the calm demeanor in which it was asked. Yet he couldn't help but detect a small hint of some positive emotion in Kakashi's voice "The other two don't seem interested in the idea at all. In fact I don't even know if they think it can be done."

Naruto was especially confused at the last part "But we saw you do it…" a sudden thought occurred to him "Why don't you want to teach us water-walking?"

Kakashi sighed as he looked at his student "I'm going to correct you while answering those questions. I'm more than happy to teach water-walking. It's a ton more interesting to teach and given where we're at is much more useful. Second I am going to teach it." Glancing towards the house he continued in a whisper "But only to you. Not the other two yet." Seeing that Naruto was about to ask why Kakashi interrupted "To answer your question it's because you asked about it. You sought out knowledge without waiting for it to be dropped into your lap."

"But why would it matter if I asked or not? Aren't you supposed to teach us how to become amazing ninja?"

Kakashi chuckled lightly but stopped when it started to hurt "Yes I am. That's why I'm doing it like this Naruto. A ninja isn't just a bunch of flashy techniques like they seem to be teaching in the academy these days. There is a lot of mental work involved as well. You need to be able to do work for yourself. Furthermore you need to be able to realize your shortcomings realistically and work towards overcoming them. At this stage of your career asking for help is one of the most important ways to do this. I'll admit that it doesn't always work. Some people just won't share. But it's a good way to get ahead in this world."

Naruto started to act angrily but was cut off by Kakashi once more "Calm down Naruto. There is no shame in not being a naturally gifted genius. Most people aren't. Unlike Sasuke you don't have all the advantages of being someone from a clan. However you have something that he doesn't. You're willing to work towards your goals a lot harder than he is. You understand that things don't come naturally to you. Sasuke on the other hand expects it and therefore doesn't work as hard. Sakura is much the same really. They've coasted by on natural talent so much that they've become complacent and don't see their shortcomings. As a result of that they don't cover up their short comings and that stumps them in terms of growth."

Naruto watched as Kakashi stared at the sky for a few moments 'But they're so talented… How could that be such a bad thing?'

Finally Kakashi started speaking again "I was hoping that the battle against Zabuza would have had a few more benefits with you three in this regards. Although it appears that only you took the hint."

"What do you mean sensei?"

"Naruto, there are people in this world who are much stronger than you three. There are people much stronger than me. Hell there are even people stronger than the Hokage believe it or not. There reason for teams isn't just a sheer number advantage though. It's for learning as well. People are placed on teams to learn from each-other as much as their sensei. That's part of why you were placed with the top two genin in the class. Since you were dead last it was figured that you'd learn a lot just from being with them."

"The theory was that when the genin figured out how much they could learn from each-other they'd continue to seek out more knowledge with other teams thereby creating a bond between all the teams in a village and bringing them all closer together. For example there is a man back at the village who has helped me a great deal with Taijutsu. I'm talented at it but I realized that he is much better at it than I am. However when I asked him to assist me in specific ways in order to cover up my short-comings I became a lot better thanks to Gai." Taking a deep breath as a wave of pain hit him Kakashi continued until it stopped "This was a roundabout way of saying that you should never be ashamed to ask for help." Finally the pain stopped "Which in and of itself was a roundabout way of saying I'd teach you water-walking. However I will not teach the others."

"What why!" Naruto was astounded. After all that talk of helping others with their problems Kakashi was just going to contradict that and not help the others?

"Simple. They didn't ask. That may seem juvenile but in this world you can't just expect people to give you what you want like they do. That is an easy and one hundred percent guaranteed way to get yourself killed. I'm trying to break them out of the habit. The very second, the VERY instant they ask I will give them all the help I can. Until they ask my hands are tied. Trust me you will all thank me for this later."

"Okay… I guess I understand."

"Good. Well then now that we're done with that I'm going to bed… Oh and Naruto?"

"Yes Kakashi-sensei?"

"If I find out that you told them about this I'll not only refuse to teach them and you, but I'll ask the Hokage to remove you from the ninja program for voyeurism."

"What's that?"

"Are you serious? It's where you spy on female team-mates and clients while they bathe."

"But I haven't done that!"

Kakashi laughed loudly before saying "With your track record it wouldn't be hard to convince him."

Naruto glared at Kakashi with a look that sang of promised misery before Kakashi laughed again "I'm just kidding Naruto. Honestly the worst that would probably get you is a slap on the wrist. I know a guy who gets away with it all the time." Pausing for a second Kakashi added "But you shouldn't do that because that's wrong... But seriously don't tell them. It's for their own good… and I'll buy you all the ramen you can eat when we get back to Konoha."

Kakashi immediately regretted his decision the second he saw the grin Naruto gave him. _'I'm going to be poor by the end of this aren't I?'_

At around noon the next day Kakashi stood observing his students. Sasuke had made the most progress however he was still faltering at around three quarters up the tree. Sakura had made quite the impression on Kakashi by simply walking up and down the tree the last three times. 'If only she'd ask about water-walking… I haven't seen chakra control that refined in a genin for quite a while.'

Eventually Kakashi decided it was time to spring his little trap. "Alright team! Everyone gather round." Once his team was assembled he looked at each of them in turn "Sakura you are doing wonderfully. I'm quite pleased with your progress. Sasuke you are doing very well too. However I notice that you keep pumping too much chakra into the technique. Just try to work on that." Finally turning to Naruto he exaggerated a sigh "Naruto you're doing awful. You haven't even gotten halfway up the tree yet." Kakashi had to hand it to Naruto. He could certainly act. "I think some training away from distractions would do you some good."

"But…"

"No buts Naruto. Now you two," gesturing towards the remaining two genin "will be staying here with a shadow clone just in case something happens. Try not to be too much of a handful."

"What'll you be teaching him?" Sakura asked.

"Just some basics."

"Well why not just teach him here?"

"Because I feel that two people doing so well may discourage him." Kakashi had to hide a small smirk 'Stroke a genius' ego and they're putty in your hands.' True to his feelings Sakura and Sasuke both seemed to be placated by this. However another problem cropped up immediately afterwards.

"I want to progress onto new things. Tree climbing won't help me defeat Zabuza." Sasuke pointed out.

'Damn it…' Kakashi thoughts 'Too much ego stroking I think.'

"You'd be wasting your time with him. I'd be more productive to train."

Kakashi's elation quickly deflated at this train of thought "Oh is that so Sasuke-kun?" the sweetness in Kakashi's voice grated against the air like nails on a chalk board "So may I be so bold as to ask for some clarification?" without pausing for a reply he continued "So you're not only saying that you know better than your jounin sensei, but you are also saying that since Naruto isn't as good as you I should just stop training him? I may not be the infallible Uchiha heir but give an old man his moment please. What I am going to be teaching Naruto could save his life. He obviously needs more in-depth instruction right? He's not as good as you right? Isn't the point of training to get better Sasuke-kun? Is Naruto's life really worth risking Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke seemed to shrink, if only slightly, from the anger which was barely held in check by his sensei "Of… Of course not."

Almost instantly Kakashi's rage dissipated from the air "My mistake then. I must have misheard you earlier. Oh well an old man like me does that from time to time." Finally making his shadow clone, which was in just a bad of shape as he was, he gestured to the others to get back to training "Remember, don't follow us. If you do I'll have to punish you. Horribly."

As they walked away from Naruto's training team-mates a thought occurred to the knuckle-headed blonde "Kakashi-sensei… Why didn't you let them train? They seemed to want to. Isn't that what you wanted?"

"Well Sasuke did at least. But he went about it the wrong way. He didn't ask. Since he's an Uchiha he just figured he would get what he wanted just by demanding it. That is, like I said before, a good way to get yourself killed. Especially since he did it to a superior. In most villages I would have been perfectly in line by killing him. We like to think of ourselves as above such barbarian tactics as killing to intimidate but the simple fact of the matter is that he lucked out. Sure what he said was perfectly true. He'd learn this much faster than you. HOWEVER you can't just say 'Make me better' and expect someone to be able to do that. I'm here to offer guidance. Not structure your lives. I need to know what you guys think you need to improve on before I can help. Understand?"

Honestly, Naruto didn't however he did nod hoping Kakashi would leave it at that. He didn't.

"Besides this is also a challenge. I'm hoping that the temptation and ninja training will over-power my obviously false command. Well… at least in Sasuke's case I think my plan will work. Sakura not so much."

"What plan?"

"Look underneath the underneath Naruto. If Sasuke wants training as much as I'm hoping he does he'll form a clone or something to 'trick' my clone, which will 'overlook' the face, and then follow us to find out what I'm teaching you. By tricking my clone I'm pretty sure he'll think that he'll prove his worth. Although… he may just decide to do the training until he collapses as a way to prove the same point."

"Either way we both know all he has to do…" smirking visibly towards Naruto even through the mask Kakashi increased his volume "All he has to do is ask to learn to water-walk with you."

A nearby bush gasped audibly.

Whipping around almost leisurely Kakashi stated, with no small amount of sarcasm, "Oh no! A student has disobeyed my orders to learn forbidden knowledge. Come on out then."

What happened next shocked both Shinobi. Stepping out of the bush with a look of determination in their eye was Sakura.

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A/N: Yep… I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Feel free to offer criticism. It makes my day better to learn what you lovely readers think of me story. But honestly, your enjoyment provides just as much warmth to my heart.

P.S. Pyromania.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11 "Surface Tension"

A/N: Nothing to report.

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Kakashi regarded Sakura, who was squirming under his gaze, with no small amount of confusion. _'Really? Her? Where's Sasuke? Surely he'd have done this too.'_ After several moments of trying to comprehend what was happening the infamous copy-nin was forced to rely on an age old form of interrogation. Simply asking "Why?"

Sakura fidgeted and looked away from her sensei "Well it didn't add up. If it were something basic you would have just taught it nearby. If you were trying to get us not to mock him well… you announced that he was getting remedial training. He would have gotten the same treatment from Sasuke-kun and me. So I figured that maybe… maybe he was getting training in something we couldn't handle. I just… needed to know what he had that we didn't." suddenly, so suddenly that even Kakashi was surprised by it, all nervousness left her as a sort of flame took residence in her soul "So what really doesn't add up now is why you're teaching him water-walking when he can barely climb trees. I'm the most suited for it Kakashi-sensei. I don't even need to rely on momentum anymore." She briefly paused as she looked over at Naruto with a critical eye as though expecting an outburst "So either he's hiding an incredible amount of skill or you're reason for teaching him is a little more… questionable."

For the first time in a long time Kakashi was stumped _'I guess those academy tests are more accurate than I remember…'_ trying, successfully, to act as though he had planned this entire situation he proceeded to say "Sakura… Despite how much sense what you've said makes you have disobeyed a superior's orders. Anything you would like to say before your punishment?"

For the second time today Kakashi was surprised by his female student. "I understand Kakashi-sensei. I will do whatever is necessary as punishment. But first I want you to teach me water-walking… I can handle it! I'm sure of it! I'll do whatever it takes! Please… teach me how to water-walk."

'_Well damn… didn't see this one coming. Maybe I should have read more of her file…' _Kakashi pretended to debate for a few more moments before he replied "Why?"

"I'm…" Sakura seemed surprised that he was even considering it but continued despite this "I can already climb trees… I've obviously mastered it. I figure that water-walking will help me train better. Plus if Zabuza attacks it's more likely he'll attack near water. I don't want to be caught off guard."

Kakashi didn't even try to hide his pride filled smile. "Well alright I suppose. However I still need to punish you for your insubordination. Maybe a pink rope made from natural hair would suffice? Have any idea on how I could get one?"

Sakura visibly paled at the suggestion.

"I'm just kidding. I think I'll punish you and teach you at the same time. In exchange for training you you are not allowed to tell Sasuke ANYTHING about our-"

"Why would I tell him?" for a third time the pinkette's response shocked her sensei.

"Be-because you love him?" Kakashi offered weakly.

"Well… that's why I shouldn't tell him right? He still struggles with tree-walking… He's not… Not just ready yet. He will be soon I'm sure… But for now he's not right? Plus if he knew he'd just get mad at me and… you wouldn't help him anyway right? So why ruin it for myself?"

"Well…alright I suppose… I just sort of thought you'd need more convincing." Kakashi grimaced at his own voice _'Smooth Kakashi…. Very smooth."_

"So… when are we going to start?" Naruto asked finally figuring it was a good time for him to talk.

"Right now actually. Follow me you two." Stepping onto the water's surface he walked several steps in before turning to face his students. To his chagrin they didn't seem quite as impressed as they had with the tree climbing _'One trick pony or something I guess.'_ Coughing a bit before he spoke he stated "Now this is very similar to tree climbing really. Except that since it's a liquid the chakra amount needed is much narrower. You can always sort of afford to go too little or too much on a tree. Not so with a liquid. You have to be very close to exact. If you put too much in you'll mess up the water removing the necessary surface tension which will cause you to fall it. If you put too little you'll just sink. No special reason for that one. Well I've already explained the basics. Let's just get right to the training."

Sakura was the first to step forward. Taking her first wobbly steps onto the water she was surprised that she didn't sink immediately.

"Very good." Kakashi commented "You picked up on that right away. I'm impressed. But you need to be more constant with your chakra. That's why you're wobbling like that. When you move one leg put more chakra into the one on the water."

When Sakura tried that she found that the water was as solid as any floor she'd ever been on. "Oh okay." However a deep burning was starting to come at around her center.

"Put more chakra into it. You're sinking."

"I'm trying." She informed him as she felt water start to tickle her knees. Finally she managed to push more chakra into her feet as she floated straight back up to the top. "I did i-ach!" with that a loud splash was heard as she fell through. Swimming back up to the top she heard Naruto and Kakashi laughing. "Shut up Naruto!"

"Sorry sorry…" Naruto tried to contain himself but he just couldn't.

"I was afraid of this." Kakashi stated a few seconds later "Your control is amazing. However your reserves are very low. Almost dangerously so. I'd say you have enough for about… Twelve clones before you get chakra exhaustion."

Sakura blushed at this. She knew that her chakra reserves were a bit lower than others but she figured that she more than made up for it with control. She was about to say as much but Kakashi cut her off.

"Alright, take a break. When you feel ready to try again; go for it. However I have a task I want you to complete. Every night, before you go to bed, make as many clones as you can until you feel like you do right now. This will build up your chakra reserves. When you can make… I suppose fifty, which won't be for a long time, come find me and I'll tell you what to do from there."

"How many clones can you make Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked as he watched Sakura pale at the comment and swim towards shore.

"Well regular clones I can make around…. I've never had to make too many but I'm sure it'd be around or above six hundred."

"Are you kidding?" Sakura asked as she wrung water out of her hair.

"Yes I am actually. I know I can make quite a few kage-bunshins however. Either way Naruto it's your turn."

Naruto slowly walked towards the water as he tried to concentrate on pouring chakra into his feet. With only a small bit of hesitation he stepped onto the water. Even Kakashi appeared surprised at this revelation as Naruto walked out a few steps into the water.

"Wow Naruto! That's really impressive! It took me…" he started to say but was interrupted by his student's feet slipping this way and that "No Naruto! Constant and Downwards! Stop wind milling!"

Naruto didn't hear his sensei's advice and as a result fell into the water without any delay.

Once Naruto managed to get to the surface and start swimming towards the shore to try again Kakashi decided to give some more advice "Remember Naruto you have to keep pushing the chakra straight down."

"Why'd I start slipping everywhere?"

"Ever slip on a wet floor or ice? It's sort of like that. Just remember that your chakra is propelling you up. If you start moving it whichever direction you'll slip and fall."

Sakura watched all of this in thoughtful silence 'Like ice… maybe… hm…'

Sakura was the last to head off to 'sleep'. She laid in the floor for two hours her mind ablaze with curiosity. Fighting off sleep was a simple task with her goal in mind. Once she heard Naruto's snores and Kakashi's light breathing she knew it was time to make her move. _'Still wish we didn't have to bunk in the same room though it'd make getting out of here a lot easier.'_ She thought with mild annoyance.

Slowly opening the door, making sure to make as little noise as possible, she scanned the front porch for Sasuke.

'_Alright, Sasuke-kun isn't here right now. But… where is he?' _her temporary relief was poisoned when she realized that this just gave her another lair of problems that she had to work through. If he saw here things could go bad quickly. The irony was certainly not lost on her. _'The only time I don't want Sasuke-kun seeing me. Lovely. My pink dress isn't helping… I may need to look into getting new clothes when we get back. I stick out like a sore thumb at night. Not as bad as Naruto though I don't think.' _she continued to sneak through the yard listening intently for even the slightest hint of a follower or observer.

Thankfully she was far into the woods by the time Sasuke returned. She watched him for a moment, searching for even the slightest hint of him knowing she was here. Absent mindedly she noted that he didn't seem too worried. _'Odd…' _She was certain that even her precious Sasuke-kun would be slightly worried with those two lunatics running around.

However she knew she didn't have time for these kinds of distractions. She had plenty to occupy her mind with right now.

Sakura wandered the darkness of the woods for a few hours. For a while she thought she was heading the wrong way and doubled back until she saw the house. Sasuke was still on watch which clued her in that she had plenty of time left. _'Well maybe not plenty.'_ It was then that she realized that maybe she should have left a clone of some sort to fool whoever took watch next. Cursing herself she was forced to cut her time even shorter by sneaking back towards the house in order to create a clone. _'Heh, I have a sleeper agent in my own camp.'_ The bad joke was the only thought she gave the thing as she once again snuck back into the woods trying to remember how to get to her destination.

Finally, after another hour of searching, she found what she wanted. The lake.

Letting out a sigh of relief she dipped her foot into the water but quickly retracted it _'Damn it! That's freezing!' _after a few moments though she realized that this would probably help her _'A good reason to not fall in.'_ looking around she stripped off her dress so that she was only in her under-shirt and shorts. _'Embarrassing yes but beats hypothermia.'_

Stepping out onto the water slowly she thought about the look Kakashi had given her when he realized she still had chakra left. It was one of relief. _'I don't know why he'd be relieved… He wouldn't know I was coming out here.'_

Pushing such thoughts aside she looked down at the water "Alright" she said aloud "keep it constant… Now shift it to the left slightly and-"she swiftly took a dive into the cold water. But when she broke to the surface she was smiling wider than she'd smiled in a long time. Because for just a moment before she fell she got all the evidence she needed that what she had in mind could work.

By the time the sun was starting to come up Sakura had just managed to get back from her self-imposed training period. Slipping on a new set of clothes to avoid making anyone suspicious of why she was wet she laid down to try to catch a few minutes of sleep. Anything to help her get through the day, which she knew would be a real pain.

Thankfully no-one seemed to know what she had done, or at least they didn't mention it, judging by the way they all treated her. Sakura smiled as she nearly fell asleep in her breakfast. Maybe she could ask Naruto for a bit of his energy. After all he seemed to have plenty of it. Just before they got to the lake she laughed aloud at the idea. People couldn't do that… Could they?

"Hey Kakashi-sensei?"

'_Is she finally ready to give up? She's exhausted. I knew she wasn't really ninja material but… I was starting to hope.'_ Kakashi berated himself mentally for these sorts of thoughts before he answered her "Yes Sakura?"

"Is it" she yawned heavily before continuing "possible to borrow chakra from someone? I'm sort of… exhausted."

"I'll share my chakra with you Sakura!"

"No you won't." Kakashi said gravely "To answer your question yes it is possible. However we're not going to do that. Giving an energy boost with chakra can lead to dependency, anxiety, and in this case perhaps death. Plus we can't afford to refill your reserves every time you get exhausted."

"I don't want you to refill my reserves… Just enough to" another yawn "Get me awake so that my own reserves will start refilling."

"I… Suppose I can do it just this once. But only a small bit okay? Don't get used to this. I don't want anything bad happening." Kakashi replied putting his hand on Sakura and pushing a bit of his own chakra into her.

Sakura was surprised at how energized she felt after this. Despite it only being a small amount, not even enough for a simple clone, it seemed to kick-start her chakra coils. But she noticed that his chakra was different. _'It feels like… lightning…'_

This started a routine for Sakura. She'd practice regular water walking during the day, sneak out at night to practice her new technique, then bum a small bit of chakra from someone in the morning to get me through the day. On the fifth day she thought to herself _'This is odd. Kakashi said that he doesn't approve but surely he's noticed. Plus why does everyone's chakra feel different?' _She had noticed that none of their chakras were really the same. She knew from the academy that chakra was sort of like a finger-print, just harder to read, but from how they talked about it things were just slightly different. Thicker or lighter. However after having chakra pumped into her several times she noticed that each of them had a totally different chakra signature. Kakashi's was intense and fast moving like lightning. Sasuke's, on the one occasion she had managed to convince him to loan her some, was warm and powerful but felt insubstantial despite the burning feeling it left in her veins. Then there was Naruto.

She had bummed off of him twice. The first time his chakra was energizing, free-flowing, and felt very pleasant. However the second time scared her.

He had admitted that he had been practicing water walking in the ocean while also messing around with tree climbing, which he found easy now that he was trying water-walking, during the night. He said that he felt like he was running low himself. However she prodded him further until he agreed. He put his hand on her shoulder and pushed a small bit of chakra into her, just like the first time he had done it, until she told him to stop. However this time… was different.

The second he started pushing chakra into her she felt something was off. His chakra was dark, oppressive, malevolent, and, worst of all, it burned. She stopped him almost the second he put it into her as she shook with pain. However, just as fast as the pain had come, it left. He couldn't have given her even a fraction of chakra needed for even walking on a tree. However when the pain left her she felt energized beyond anything she had felt before. She had been able to train throughout the entire day with just that small amount of chakra. The more she trained with it the less painful it got until she was sure she worked it entirely out of her system.

'_It felt great to be so strong but… I'm glad it's gone. I don't want to do this chakra transfer stuff anymore.' _Absent-mindedly she wondered how Naruto wasn't stronger with that sort of chakra. He had given her just a small fraction of what he had, she was sure of that, and yet he couldn't even beat Sasuke in a spar. _'I'll ask Kakashi about it when we get back to Konoha.'_

A few days later found the trio standing on the water once more. Kakashi and Naruto were sparring though it was obvious that Kakashi wasn't back to his full strength. Naruto had improved quite a bit in the few days since he started. He stood on the water just as solidly as if he were standing on stone.

Kakashi grunted as Naruto kicked his arm with a painful thud. "Alright alright that's enough!" Kakashi complained as he nursed his arm "I'm still healing. But at least you're improving. You only barely started to go under when you landed. I think I'm done for now." Kakashi stretched his neck a bit before he turned his gaze towards Sakura "Alright since I'm too sore to practice again it's up to you two alright? Same rules as a normal sparring match. The only way to lose is to have your head go under-water, even if it's only the chine, or by touching land. Other than that anything goes. Get into position. On my mark."

'_Oh man! I don't wanna fight Sakura! What if I hurt her too much and she decides to never date me!'_

Sakura watches as Naruto cast a wary glance at her almost as if he was afraid "Naruto!"

This snapped him out of his worried thoughts.

"Don't hold anything back alright? This is for both of us! If you hold back I won't forgive you!"

Naruto looked at her in surprise but eventually smiled "Alright Sakura-Chan! Whatever you say. Better get ready!"

Now it was Sakura's turn to worry _'Oh man why did I do that? He's has so much more chakra! Plus he's a brawler. This sort of thing is right up his alley. Maybe I should just…'_

'_**So we're just going to give up! No! We did all that training! We can't afford to give up now! Now let's show him our new technique cha!"**_

'_Yeah! We'll show him who's the boss!'_ Concentrating chakra at her feet Sakura smiles "I'm more than ready!"

Kakashi nodded as the trash talk concluded "Alright? Anything else to say? Any more gloating? Good. On my mark! Get set! GO!"

* * *

A/N: Cliff-hanger to the rescue! Next month is a special time for this fiction. An entire year of writing on this one story. I'm pretty happy with how this chapter turned out. Just what is Sakura's new technique though? Find out next time!


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